SSS ACOP: how pensioners confirm each year, including from abroad

The Annual Confirmation of Pensioners (ACOP) is how some SSS pensioners show each year that they are alive and still entitled to the pension. Retirement pensioners living abroad must do it once a year, in their birth month. If they don’t, SSS suspends the pension one month later. From abroad it can be done online with a selfie or by video call (SSS Circular 2023-013 and SSS’s ACOP pages).

Who must comply

The current ACOP rules, SSS Circular 2023-013, cover:

• retirement pensioners living abroad
• retirement pensioners in the Philippines who are 80 or older
• total disability pensioners
• survivor (death) pensioners
• dependent children under guardianship

Retirement pensioners in the Philippines under 80 don’t need to comply unless SSS tells them to.

How to comply from abroad

1. Online with facial authentication. Since March 2026 (SSS news, 11 March 2026), if you are registered in the Philippine National ID system (PhilSys), you can comply from any phone or computer with a camera. You do not log in to My.SSS. This is open to retirement pensioners abroad, retirement pensioners in the Philippines aged 80 and over, and survivor pensioners.

1. On the SSS website’s home page, click Submit ACOP compliance.
2. Confirm you are registered in PhilSys and tick the data-sharing box.
3. Enter your SS number and date of birth, then click Submit.
4. Confirm your name. Survivor pensioners also confirm whether they have remarried.
5. Read the instructions, click Start Liveness and take a live selfie.
6. A confirmation page appears when it works.

2. Video call through My.SSS. Log in, choose Set Appointment in Quick Links, pick Compliance to Annual Confirmation of Pensioners (ACOP) and then ACOP through video conference. In the Philippines you can choose MS Teams or Viber. Pensioners abroad choose MS Teams, region POEA & Foreign Offices and branch OFW Contact Services Section. You can also ask for a video call by email to ofw.relations@sss.gov.ph or to the SSS foreign representative office nearest you.

3. By mail or courier. Send the ACOP form to the OFW Contact Services Section, International Operations Group, 11th Floor, SSS Main Office, Diliman, Quezon City 1100, or to the nearest SSS foreign representative office. The forms are on the SSS ACOP page: PEN-01966 for retirement and total disability pensioners, PEN-01967 for a surviving spouse.

Total disability pensioners and dependants under guardianship are not on the facial authentication list, so they use the video call, mail or branch routes.

Deadline, and what happens if you miss it

• When: your birth month. For survivor pensions, the birth month of the member who died. You can comply up to 2 months early.
• Your first ACOP: one year after SSS approves your pension.
• If you miss it: SSS suspends the pension automatically one month after your birth month.
• If it stays missed: SSS cancels the pension two years after the suspension.

Once you comply, SSS resumes the pension and credits the months it held back. Circular 2023-013 says payment resumes within one month of compliance, while SSS’s ACOP page says within two months, so allow for the longer one.

Helping a parent comply

Many pensioners abroad are helped by a son or daughter. What the family can do, from SSS’s ACOP page:

• Help with the online route. The selfie must be the pensioner’s own face, live, so the pensioner has to be there. A child can work the phone.
• Go to a branch as representative. Bring the filled-in ACOP form, one primary ID or two secondary IDs each for the pensioner and yourself, and a chest-up photo of the pensioner holding a current newspaper with the headline and date showing, or in front of a TV news ticker showing the date.
• Ask for a home visit. Open to every type of pensioner, for example one who cannot travel, cannot speak or is not of sound mind. Send SSS a letter by email or through a representative, signed by the pensioner, a relative or a guardian, giving the reason.

Pensioners without a camera-equipped device can get help at the E-Centers in SSS branches.

More on the pension itself is in the SSS pension guide, and on filing in SSS retirement requirements and filing. Retirement pensioners can also borrow against the pension: see the SSS pension loan. Everything else on SSS for Filipinos abroad is in the SSS guide for OFWs.