House Bill No. 2229 authored by Quezon Rep. Marvin Rillo, will “double” unemployment insurance benefits for solo parents who loses their jobs as it amends the SSS charter.
House Bill No. 2229 was filed seeking to double the insurance benefits of laid-off single parents of their average monthly salary credit (AMSC) for two months. This is applied to only solo parents who will be displaced from their jobs.
“Single parents, being the only breadwinner in the household, are exceptionally vulnerable to economic hardship. They deserve greater financial support if they lose their jobs for reasons unrelated to their performance as employees,” Quezon City Rep. Marvin Rillo, the bill's author said.
At present, the subsidy is just half of the monthly salary for two months at the most. But if enacted, Rillo’s bill, would grant an AMSC of P40,000 for the displaced solo parent.
The loss of jobs has resulted from the weakened economy caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have to assure solo parents ample financial protection when they get thrown out of work. This way, while they are looking for new employment, their families will have the means to make ends meet,” Rillo said.
House Bill No. 2229 also seeks to amend the Social Security System (SSS) charter, or RA 11199.
At present, the subsidy is equal to percent of the monthly salary for two months maximum for laid-off and qualified employees covered by the SSS including overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
At the height of the pandemic in 2020, the SSS said it paid out over P1.71 billion in unemployment insurance benefits to 135,814 displaced members.
Solo parents now comprise 13 percent of the 109 million national population, Rillo said adding that there are 15 million solo parents in the country with 95 percent of them women based on a World Health Organization (WHO)-funded study by the University of the Philippines’ (UP) National Institutes of Health and Department of Health (DOH).
Tags: #soloparents, #HouseBill, #SSS, #unemploymentinsurance