How many contributions you need for an SSS pension

You need 120 monthly contributions paid before the semester you retire to get an SSS pension for life (RA 11199 Sec. 12-B). With fewer, SSS pays a one-time lump sum instead, or you can keep paying until you reach 120. Ten years of monthly payments makes 120, but they do not have to be in a row.

What counts toward 120

SSS’s retirement page says a member “must have paid at least one hundred twenty (120) monthly contributions prior to the semester of retirement”, which is the rule in RA 11199 Sec. 12-B. The “semester” is the two quarters ending with the quarter you retire.

• Every member type counts. Months paid as an employee, self-employed member, OFW, voluntary member or non-working spouse all go toward the same 120.
• It is a count of months, not of years.

120 contributions is not the same as credited years of service (CYS). The 120 decides whether you get a monthly pension at all. CYS help decide how much it is: for contributions from 2002, SSS counts CYS as your total monthly contributions divided by 12, from 1985 to 2001 as calendar years with at least six contributions, and before 1985 as every calendar year from coverage (implementing rules, Rule 12 Sec. 19). The SSS pension guide has the formula.

If you have fewer than 120

At 60, a member with fewer than 120 contributions who has stopped working gets a one-time lump sum. RA 11199 Sec. 12-B(b) describes it as “the total contributions paid by him and on his behalf”. SSS’s retirement page describes it as “the total contributions paid, including interest earned”.

Or you can keep going. SSS’s retirement page says a member “shall be given the option to continue paying the contributions as a voluntary member (VM) to complete the 120 months to avail the full benefits thru monthly pension”. SSS’s voluntary member page adds that a member aged 65 or over with fewer than 120 “may continue paying contributions as a VM until he/she completes the required 120 contributions”.

Taking the lump sum ends it. SSS’s online retirement claim warns that after a lump sum “no other benefit is due thereafter except for funeral benefit” (SSS Circular 2021-021).

Checking your count

Log in to My.SSS and look at your posted contributions. Count the months, and look for gaps. Our guide to checking your posted contributions shows where to find them. If a payment you made is missing, the how to pay guide covers SSS’s posting request.

To see what your record would give you at 60, use the SSS pension calculator. It prints the lump-sum rule if you enter fewer than 120.

Reaching 120 from abroad

While you work abroad on your own contract, you pay as a land-based OFW. When your overseas work ends, you can pay as a voluntary member. Both pay through a payment reference number in My.SSS: see how to pay SSS contributions and voluntary SSS contributions.

What SSS says about timing:

• Land-based OFW deadlines: January to September by 31 December of the same year; October to December by 31 January of the next year (SSS OFW members page).
• Late payment: SSS’s Pay Contributions page says “late contribution payments of SE, LB-OFW, VM and NWS members shall not be allowed”. For voluntary, self-employed and non-working spouse members, “missed months shall remain as payment gaps since retroactive payments are not allowed”. For self-employed members, RA 11199 Sec. 22-A also bars retroactive payment, except as that section provides.
• For OFWs, SSS adds: “No contribution paid retroactively by a land based OFW member based on the above deadline shall be used in determining his/her eligibility to any benefit arising from a contingency wherein the date of payment is within or after the semester of contingency.”
• Paying ahead is allowed for voluntary, self-employed, non-working spouse and OFW members, and counts once each month has passed.

Deadlines for every member type are in SSS payment deadlines.

Back to the SSS guide for OFWs.