One thing I learned from taking over my Mom's affairs the past few months is to also put my affairs in order. Sweetie and I have been busy ironing out a lot of paperwork. I rarely go out since I'm immunocompromised, so any outing has to be well-planned. I realized I also need to put my affairs in order because Miggy will eventually have to take over everything. Maybe I'll have him take care of things when I reach the legal retirement age. I told him this morning that we'll make sure to minimize guesswork when the time comes.
I was cared for really well when I was an OFW. The only thing I had to take care of every two years was pay the POEA fee. Paying SSS, Pag-ibig (HDMF) and Philhealth was purely voluntary since when you work abroad companies don't contribute for it. I remember I had to pay Pag-ibig whenever I had to get the travel certification so I didn't need to pay for travel tax. Eventually though when things were processed online they didn't enforce payment anymore. So I did not see any need for it since my Mom said what they receive monthly is just PhP5k from SSS. Philhealth though was very useful when my parents were hospitalized. So parang hassle lang?
Well, I'm now required to submit proof that I'm not getting any benefits from SSS. I couldn't register for my account online and despite following up the past two months, no one answered my inquiry online. After some research I realized that maybe the best way to iron things out was go to a branch and update my details. Printed the forms from the SSS website and spent most of the day yesterday filling them out and making copies of the ID requirements.
Found out there's a SSS branch nearby so Sweetie and I walked in today. Everything went smoothly since the crew were all very helpful. I was really surprised to find out that my SSS account was still "temporary". I already had several jobs before I left for Singapore and all my previous companies supposedly paid the contributions. Well, at least now I know how many months of contributions have been made.
I requested for the UMID and they're giving it to me for free since I never had an SSS ID before. The process was quite fast and they even asked me to select which of the three photos I wanted to use. The processor laughed because I told her I wanted the one where my dimple was prominent, hahaha. She was pretty chill probably because there wasn't really a lot of people. It was hard though to get my fingerprints (as usual!). I told her Singapore Immigration also had a hard time capturing my prints. She volunteered some of her hand cream so we could bring out my shy fingerprint. It will take six months though before I could get the ID (hello bureaucracy!).
I was told if I have friends who still don't have their SSS UMID, they can just walk in to have it processed. Just print the form from the website and bring complete documents (original and photocopied). The experience overall was good. It was just hard to park and get up the steep stairs to the office (they do have a PWD chair you can ride). Thank you to Ms. Joyce and the UMID in-charge (sorry I didn't get your name) for the professional handling of my needs.
And if you need to register for a SSS account, here are the steps:
The next thing I need to do is get a PWD ID. Yun nga lang step 1 palang sa Barangay health center, di na happy experience. How do they expect physically challenged people to go up very steep stairs? Tapos 4:30pm palang wala na yung doctor. Bumalik daw ako ng 8am kasi 10 people lang ina-accommodate nila. OMG?
#BeKind #StaySafe
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