SSS Maternity Benefit for Separated (from Employers) Members

During the early stages of my pregnancy, I thought of leaving my work in a BPO company to focus on my pregnancy but I was hindered by a misconception that I can only avail of the SSS Maternity benefit when I'm employed. However, upon reading some forums, I learned that every pregnant member, whether employed or not, is entitled to avail of the maternity benefit. So after careful consideration, I handed my resignation letter to the company's HR officer and a month after, I bade good bye to the company after almost nine years of love-hate relationship.

Separated members shouldn't have hard time processing their SSS Maternity benefit if the HR officer is well-informed regarding this matter or if their is enough information available online. In my case, the HR officer from my former company haven't experienced a case similar to mine and the SSS employee in-charge of receiving the documents is not clear with his instructions regarding the requirements, so it took me a little longer to finish processing. But I wouldn't rant about that since the purpose of this post is to share information to other members whose situation is similar to mine.

So here are the requirements/documents separated SSS members need to submit in order to be granted the SSS Maternity benefit:

• Maternity notification form duly stamped and received by SSS (MAT 1)
• Maternity Reimbursement Form
• UMID or SSS biometrics ID card or two (2) other valid IDs, both with signature and at least one (1) with photo and date of birth
• Medical certificate (original or certified true/machine copy)
• Hospital abstract/admitting notes (original or certified true/machine copy)
• Operating room records (original or certified true/machine copy)
• Certification from last employer showing the effective date of separation from employment (issued by personnel who is also one of the signatories in the specimen signature card/L501)
• Certification that no advance payment was granted (if confinement days applied for are within or prior to separation, issued by personnel who is also one of the signatories in the specimen signature card/L501)
• Certified or authenticated copy of duly registered birth certificate
• Machine copy of L501 (Specimen signature card)

I completed and submitted all the documents required on June 7, 2016 and the check was issued on June 10. Quezon City post office received the mail on June 16 and arrived at my local post office (Iloilo Province) on June 28. I only claimed the mail on July 5 as the postman in our municipality do not deliver to the address but instead wait for the addressee to claim the mail in the post office. According to the SSS employee I talked too, processing time takes a month to a month and a half but as you can see in my timeline, it only took three weeks which is pretty impressive for a government office. Change must have came! :D

SSS bank is with PNB so I encashed my check there. Note to those members whose last name have special characters like "Ñ", SSS system cannot recognize it so a "?" will appear on your check. The bank will not encash the check unless you have it corrected and signed by two SSS personnel who are authorized to do it.

By the way, SSS reimbursed me Php 41,600 because I gave birth to my son via Caesarian Section and my monthly contribution was Php 1760.

Hoping that you find this post useful and enable you to process your SSS Maternity benefit without so much hassle.