Here's how workers can claim COVID-related benefits from SSS | ABS-CBN

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Here's how workers can claim COVID-related benefits from SSS

Here's how workers can claim COVID-related benefits from SSS

ABS-CBN News

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Medical frontliners wait in line to get a number as they hope to get their Covid-19 vaccine at the Sta Ana Hospital in Manila on May 13, 2021. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File

MANILA - Workers who contracted COVID-19 could avail of the benefits from the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System, an official of the Employees Compensation Commission said Friday.

The Labor Department earlier said COVID-19 is now a compensable illness under the Employee Compensation Program if acquired in the workplace or in tasks related to a worker's job.

"Yung kanilang makukuhang benepisyo ay 'yung tinatawag na sickness benefits, kung hindi sila nakapasok ng ilang araw mayroon silang daily allowance na ang maximum of P450 per day," said Employees' Compensation Commission Executive Director Stella Zipagan-Banawis.

(The benefits they can claim are sickness benefits, if they can't report to work they have a daily allowance of a maximum of P450 a day.)

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Medical reimbursements are also available for out-of-pocket expenses related to hospitalization, she said.

For those who died of the disease, beneficiaries can claim death pension or survivorship pension as well as funeral benefits, she added.

To claim benefits from the SSS, members should submit the following:

• Certificate of employment
• Certificate of RT-PCR result from DOH accredited testing facility
• Medical records if hospitalized

Forms are available for download online, Banawis said.

Claims are also "expedited" which, in theory, should be processed within 20 working days, Banawis said.

As for the work-from-home set-up, injuries incurred at home, which is now considered the workplace, are also now compensable. Bawais, however, clarified that only work-related injuries are entitled to compensation.

Many companies have implemented alternate work arrangements after the first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 shuttered public transportation and all other non-essential businesses.

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