SSS MPF: what the mandatory provident fund is and how it works

If your monthly salary credit (MSC) is above PHP 20,000, the contribution on the part above goes to the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), your own savings account inside SSS. It does not go to the regular pension. SSS now runs it as the mandatory part of the MySSS Pension Booster, formerly the Workers’ Investment and Savings Program (WISP). Enrolment is automatic once your MSC goes over PHP 20,000 (SSS Circular 2023-006).

How much goes to it

The rate is the same 15% as the rest of your contribution. Only the salary credit above PHP 20,000 counts, up to the highest MSC of PHP 35,000. For a land-based OFW, who pays it all (SSS Circular 2024-010):

MSC PHP 20,500: MPF part

PHP 75.00

MSC PHP 35,000: MPF part

PHP 2,250.00

MSC PHP 35,000: regular SS part, for comparison

PHP 3,000.00

For employees, the employer pays 10% and the employee 5%, on the MPF part as on the rest. At the top MSC, the MPF part is PHP 2,250.00 in all (SSS Circular 2024-006). Voluntary and self-employed members pay it all, as OFWs do.

The SSS contribution calculator shows the regular SS and MPF parts for any salary credit. Circular 2023-006 says MPF contributions “shall always be paid together with contributions under the Regular SSS Program”, so there is no separate payment.

Why it does not raise your pension

RA 11199 Sec. 8(g) says that “in the computation of benefits, the maximum monthly salary credit to be considered shall be Twenty thousand pesos”. SSS’s contribution circulars say the same: regular benefits are worked out on MSC up to PHP 20,000, and contributions on MSC above that “shall be for the MPF Program and credited to the member’s individual account”.

So paying on a salary credit of PHP 35,000 does not raise the regular pension above what PHP 20,000 gives. The extra builds a separate balance, which SSS pays “in addition to the benefits provided under RA No. 11199” (Circular 2023-006). How the regular pension is worked out is in the SSS pension guide.

Seeing your balance and how it pays out

Your balance. SSS calls it the total accumulated account value: your MPF contributions plus investment income, minus a management fee, which Circular 2023-006 sets initially at 1% a year. Investment income is worked out at the end of each year and credited to your account. The SSS primer says members can follow their Pension Booster contributions in My.SSS. As of 20 October 2026, SSS has not published a guide to viewing the mandatory balance.

Withdrawals. Circular 2023-006 is plain: “Withdrawal of contributions is not allowed.” This differs from the voluntary Pension Booster, which allows withdrawals after the first year.

When it is paid. The MPF benefit is processed automatically when you or your beneficiaries file a final claim for retirement, total disability or death. It is paid together with the regular SSS benefit, including when a retiree takes the first 18 monthly pensions in advance (Circular 2023-006).

How it is paid. It follows how your regular benefit is paid:

• Regular benefit as a lump sum: the MPF is a lump sum too.
• Regular benefit as a monthly pension: you choose a fixed monthly MPF pension equal to your balance divided by 60, 120 or 180 months. Or you take up to 50% as a lump sum and the rest as a monthly pension over the same choice of months.
• Balance under PHP 100,000: paid as a lump sum.
• Death: always a lump sum to the beneficiaries.

Back to the SSS guide for OFWs.