Pay SSS Contributions via UnionBank Online

 COVID-19 definitely did a number to many of us. Several companies had to lay off key personnel to cut costs. So yeah, some of us lost jobs because of it. As employed personnel, our employers took care of payments to governmental obligations such as SSS, PAG-IBIG, and PhilHealth. We need not worry about when to pay our contributions or where to pay and such as everything were automatically deducted from our salaries come payroll time.

Now being no longer part of the formally employed sector, we either have the option to temporarily discontinue paying for those three. After all, we don't the income. In the short-term, there is no significant blow if you choose not to pay for contributions for the time being. However, in the long-term, it might prove disadvantageous to you. Not paying might affect your benefits if something happens to you (for example, perhaps lowered monetary claim in case of sickness).

If you have savings or find yourself having a part-time job, consider continuing paying for your SSS, PAG-IBIG, and PhilHealth contributions. Except for PhilHealth, there are many ways you can pay SSS and PAGIBIG without having to go to the branch and run the risk of contracting the virus. There's GCash, Coin.ph, or the online facility of some banks. My favorite platform to use when paying my own SSS contributions as a voluntary member is through UnionBank's online platform. It's not only easy to do so, but contributions are poste real-time. That's right. As soon as you are done paying SSS contributions via UnionBank, you can readily check your member's contribution posted in the SSS member's portal.

Without further ado, below are the steps on how to pay your SSS monthly contribution through UnionBank online.

First, before logging in to your UBP account, you need to prepare the payment reference number (PRN). You will be needing this number when you make the payment. Simply log-in to your SSS account. Find the tab Payment Reference Number to generate PRN. You generally, just have to do it once. Every first of the month, you'll find the generated PRN like below to appear on your SSS online account. The same contribution will be set there monthly. However, if you wish to change the amount of contribution, you'll need to generate a new one in order to nominate a different amount of contribution. As soon, as you've paid, the statement of account will be removed from your list. The one below still shows my December 2020 statement of account because I opted to pay a lesser amount, not the 2,400 indicated in the PRN. So I generated a new one for that month.

You can find the payment reference number (PRN) printed on the statement of account like below. Either open the PDF by clicking the PDF icon to view the full statement or copy directly the PRN shown. The encircled numbers on the image below is your PRN:

1. Log in to your UnionBank account. Make sure you have your phone with you to receive the OTP (one-time password). From the Dashboard on the left panel, click on PAY BILLS

2. Once you've clicked PAY BILLS, select the biller. Simply type SSS, so Social Security System (SSS) pops up like below. Click on that.



3. Upon clicking SSS as biller, you'll be prompted to enter the PRN. From the PRN you've copied from the SSS website, paste PRN on the box provided (or you can type it). Click on NEXT.



4. Select the Funding Account. It's the account you want to pay from.



Note that if you have applied for the new PAG-IBIG Loyalty Card Plus, you can use that as your funding account. The new Loyalty Card Plus is actually a savings account. Just check if the one you got is from UBP.  We are not certain, but we believe the other issuing bank is Asia United Bank (AUB).


5. With the use of PRN, details are system-generated. Details will automatically appear bearing the PRN, the member's name, the member's SSS number, the applicable month (s), and the amount. Check the details, edit if necessary, and if everything is correct, click the PAY button. 



6. Upon hitting PAY, the One-Time Password window pops up. Check your phone for the OTP sent by the bank and input the six-digit number within the next five minutes.



7. Upon inputting your OTP, you'll be directed to a page showing that your payment was successful. The payment-success notification will bear the biller details and the amount paid from the specified funding account.



And you're done.
Depending on your notification setting specified in your online account, you'll receive notification of the transaction either by SMS or via email.


By then, you may go back to SSS' member's portal to check if your contribution is successfully posted. As mentioned earlier, posting of the contribution is real-time. Thus, you should see the contribution reflected like so:


In this example, I paid for my February 2021 premium contribution. In the SSS's website, you can view all your contributions from the month you started paying for it to present. Simply go to the INQUIRY tab and click on CONTRIBUTIONS to see the table like above. The columns with zeroes are obviously the months either the employer failed to submit the contributions or you as a voluntary member failed to pay.


Since the retrenchment due to COVID-19 pandemic (from May), I only remembered to continue paying in October as a voluntary member. See the December 2020 contribution? I previously nominated 2,400 as monthly contribution but changed it to a lower premium (1,980). As a voluntary member, you can decide the amount of contribution. It need not be fixed.
Anyhow, I hope this little step-by-step guide helps you.