SSS UMID: what it is and what replaced it

SSS no longer issues new UMID cards. SSS Circular 2025-008, signed 25 September 2025, made the MySSS Card SSS’s ID card, “effectively discontinuing the issuance of generic UMID Cards and UMID Pay Cards”. UMID cards already issued stay valid: SSS’s MySSS Card page says “all previously issued SSS cards are still valid”. To get the new card, you apply in My.SSS, then open an account with an SSS partner bank, which makes and releases the card. You need a permanent SS number, a My.SSS account and registration in the National ID system.

What the UMID card is

UMID stands for Unified Multi-Purpose ID. Circular 2025-008 defines the SSS UMID as an SSS-issued ID card that “has passed through the biometric uniqueness check” of the UMID system. It came in two kinds:

• Generic UMID card: an ID card only, with no ATM function.
• UMID Pay Card: an SSS ID card with an EMV chip, issued through a partner bank, that also became your default account for SSS payouts.

GSIS issued UMID cards too: SSS and PSA both list the UMID as “SSS/GSIS” or “GSIS or SSS-issued”. Circular 2025-008 also repealed the 2020 and 2021 circulars that governed UMID applications (Circulars 2020-009 and 2021-011).

UMID, the MySSS Card and the national ID

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Sources: Circular 2025-008 parts III and IV; SSS MySSS Card page; PSA National ID FAQ.

The MySSS Card as an ID. SSS’s MySSS Card page says you may use it for SSS transactions, but “other government agencies and private institutions are not mandated to accept it as an official ID”, because “the National ID (PhilSys) now serves as the primary official identification for all Filipinos.”

The national ID. It is a separate card from PSA, set up under Republic Act 11055. PSA calls it a foundational ID and says it “will not replace functional government-issued IDs that serve other purposes” (PSA National ID FAQ). When you apply for the MySSS Card, SSS checks your identity against the National ID system and uses your national ID photo for the card (SSS MySSS Card page).

How the cards relate to your SS number. To apply for the MySSS Card, your SS number must be tagged Permanent in SSS’s records (Circular 2025-008). If you have ever been given two SS numbers, SSS keeps the one with an SS ID or UMID card first when it merges them (SSS membership page). How to get a number, or make a Temporary one Permanent, is in applying for an SS number.

How to apply for the MySSS Card

Who can apply. Members, prior registrants, pensioners, individual claimants and representative payees who meet all four requirements in Circular 2025-008:

• an SS number tagged as permanent
• a registered My.SSS account
• a local mailing or home address, mobile number and email address in SSS’s records
• registration with the National ID system

Your name and date of birth must match exactly in your SSS and National ID records. If they differ, correct them first with whichever agency has the wrong record (2026 SSS Citizen’s Charter). You do not need the physical national ID card, only to be registered.

Step 1, in My.SSS (SSS MySSS Card page and 2026 Citizen’s Charter):

1. Log in to My.SSS and choose MySSS Card under the Services menu.
2. Check your contact details and update them if needed.
3. Consent to SSS checking your identity with National ID eVerify and using your national ID photo.
4. Take the liveness test (a face scan).
5. Choose a partner bank. My.SSS links to each bank’s account features and terms.
6. Accept the terms and the data-sharing consent, then click Confirm and Submit. You get a transaction number, an email and a My.SSS inbox message.

Circular 2025-008 (part IV.D.1) also lets you start at the partner bank instead, through its website, app or a branch, where you open the account and give the same consents. SSS’s MySSS Card page describes only the My.SSS route.

Step 2, with the bank. Open your account through the bank’s app or at a branch, depending on the bank. Complete its checks and pay any card fee it charges. If you do not pay within the bank’s deadline, the application is cancelled (Circular 2025-008). There is no visit to an SSS branch for biometrics.

When the card arrives. The bank tells you by SMS or in its app. SSS’s MySSS Card page gives 15 working days after the account opens in Metro Manila and 20 working days outside it; the 2026 Citizen’s Charter sets 20 working days as the maximum.

From abroad. Circular 2025-008 lets applicants living abroad without a local address in their SSS record qualify if the partner bank they choose offers the service. They may name an authorised representative to receive the card, if the bank allows it. The National ID system is a separate registration: PSA says it has registration centres for returning or departing OFWs in select Department of Migrant Workers offices (PSA National ID FAQ).

No My.SSS account yet? See SSS online registration.

Using the card

• SSS payouts. The MySSS Card account automatically becomes your default account for SSS benefits, loans and refunds, including a pension already being paid. You do not have to enrol it separately in the Disbursement Account Enrollment Module (DAEM). Accounts you enrolled before stay on record but are no longer used (Circular 2025-008; SSS MySSS Card page).
• Paying for things. SSS says the card works for payments in shops and online.
• One card at a time. You can hold one MySSS Card with one bank. To switch banks, close the account with the first bank, wait for SSS to deactivate the card, then apply again. The same applies if you hold a UMID Pay Card (SSS MySSS Card page).
• Lost or damaged card. Ask the bank for a replacement under its own rules. It may ask for the old card back (Circular 2025-008).
• Your old UMID card. It stays valid. A UMID Pay Card also stays valid as an ID if you replace it through a different bank (Circular 2025-008).

Back to the SSS guide for OFWs.