SSS voluntary contribution: how voluntary membership works

A voluntary member is someone who was covered by SSS before, as an employee, self-employed member or OFW, and keeps paying after that work stops. You choose your salary credit, pay the whole 15% yourself, and keep your months counting toward the 120 contributions a pension needs. Since January 2025 the contribution runs from PHP 750 to PHP 5,250 a month (SSS Circular 2024-009).

Who can be a voluntary member

SSS’s voluntary coverage page lists four groups:

• a covered employee who has left their job
• a self-employed member who has no income for the period
• an OFW whose overseas job has ended (RA 11199 Sec. 9-B(f) says they may keep paying “to maintain their rights to full benefits”)
• a non-working spouse who manages the household full time, under rules of its own. See SSS for a non-working spouse.

Filipinos who have settled abroad as immigrants, permanent residents or citizens of another country may also stay covered on a voluntary basis (Sec. 9-B(g)).

Two limits from SSS’s voluntary member page:

• You must have been covered first, with at least one valid posted contribution. A person with a new SS number and no employer cannot start as a voluntary member: SSS says such payments are “void and subject to refund”.
• Age. A member aged 60 to 64 with 120 contributions or more may keep paying until 65. A member aged 65 or over with fewer than 120 may keep paying until they reach 120 and can claim a monthly pension.

This differs from land-based OFW membership, which is compulsory while you work abroad and has a higher minimum salary credit. See how land-based OFWs pay SSS.

Switching your membership type

To voluntary: no form. When you generate your payment reference number (PRN) in My.SSS or the MySSS app, choose Voluntary Member as the membership type, then pay. SSS’s own wording: this “will automatically change the membership status of the member and shall be deemed as declaration that he/she has ceased to be an EE, SE, or an OFW member”. The same works in the other direction for OFWs: choose Overseas Filipino Worker as the payor type when you go abroad.

To self-employed: a form or an online request. If you start earning from your own work or business, you change to self-employed with the Member Data Change Request (SS Form E-4) at an SSS branch, or online in My.SSS under SSS Circular 2022-018, which lists “Voluntary to Self-Employed” as a change members can request online.

Choosing your MSC

You pay 15% of the monthly salary credit (MSC) you choose, from PHP 5,000 to PHP 35,000 (Circular 2024-009). The part up to PHP 20,000 goes to the regular SSS programme and counts for the pension. The part above goes to your MPF account in the MySSS Pension Booster.

The full table is in our SSS contribution table for voluntary members and OFWs, and the SSS contribution calculator works out the regular SS and MPF parts for any salary credit. What a higher MSC does to your pension is shown by the SSS pension calculator.

Paying and deadlines

Pay against a PRN through any channel SSS accepts: SSS branches with tellers, accredited banks, non-bank collecting partners, or the MySSS app. The steps are in how to pay SSS contributions.

The deadline for voluntary members and non-working spouses is the last day of the month after the month, or the calendar quarter, you are paying for (SSS Pay Contributions page). You can pay one, two or all three months of a quarter at once.

SSS does not accept late payments from voluntary members, so a missed month stays a gap (SSS Pay Contributions page). Paying ahead is fine, for as many months as you like, and each advance month counts once it has passed.

Gaps do not cancel your membership. SSS says benefits and loans “can still be availed of, as long as the member meets the qualifying conditions”. More on dates for every member type is in SSS payment deadlines. Back to the SSS guide for OFWs.