Too Difficult- Transfer of Pension

My father died last March 19, 2009. He is a SSS pensioner. He gets his monthly pension through a PSBank passbook account. Last use was of the account is on March 3, 2009.

I talked with SSS officer last Tuesday. I got the appointment number by 11 AM-I was able to talked with the SSS officer around 2:30 PM. And I got the list requirements by then.

Social Security System

By Wednesday-I have to get a Certified True Copy of my parent’s marriage certificate and my mother’s certificate from NSO extension at Muntinlupa.I started before 8AM. I got the documents by 11 AM. I immediately went to Gamboa St., Makati for the Prudential Life Insurance for the certificate of use of plan by my father instead of my mother. I arrived at Greenbelt-Wendy’s by 12:30 noon. I arrived at Prudential by 1:15 PM-the document is already waiting for me to check and pay for the processing fee of P250.00

I immediately went to PSBank to get the requirements for the release of remaining balance. I was told that I have to get a baranggay ID for my mother-so I went to BF Baranggay office. There I found out that I must get an endorsement from Irineville’s homeowner association for my mother. SO I also inquired where the nearest notary public location.

Next day-Thursday- my mother and I went to the notary public and was advised to plead for leniency on the requirements-especially the extra judicial settlement since it still needs 3 weeks publication in a newspaper (worth-P1500.00) and notary fee of P3,000.00.

When we talked with PSBank and gave them all the requirements except the extra judicial settlement -they that they have still to refer this to their legal department. My mother started to cry and said that it was just a small amount (p10,000.00) and yet they are making it harder for her to get it. The officer reiterated that this are the requirements really and they were afraid that someone might went after them if they released the amount and close the account. The bank manager came and told her subordinate to get all the documents and refer it to their legal department. My mother was briefly pacified. So by 10:30AM ,my mother had her pictures taken for SSS/Bamk Id. She also opened a BPI Account for the pension-it only took a mere 20 minutes to do so.

Update: PS Bank service personnel Karen was able to facilitate the release of the remaining balance of my father’s account. Kudos for her tremendous effort to satisfy their customer and to make-up for the initial disappointment.

AT the SSS office at BF Homes, Sucat-the SSS officer look into our documents and found out that PSBank endorsement is still missing. She also pointed that we still need to notarized another document. This is already 11:30 am-and near lunch break.

We took a lunch at KFC San Antonio Valley-and then sought a notary public. Judge Leticia de Guia was so helpful (office infront of Paranaque City Hall) in notarizing and also offer help in the extrajudicial statement by lowering the required amount-since the amount in the passbook is only P10,000.00. We have it all signed and then notarized.

We took a taxi back to PSBank since my mother is already feeling dizzy. And we submitted the extra-judicial statement. But still we had to wait for days -since they will still refer it to their legal. And they did not told us this early morning when we first came to them. They just gacve us a statement of account of my father’s account. There is no note that it is already closed and that they already have his passbook.

When I presented this to SSS -the officer took some leniency and have all the documents received. I just have to xeroxed some documents again so that I can have a follow-up form given to me.

So it took 3 days to process this. And it is good that  I have a funeral leave since I am working for Meralco. But for ordinary citizen-such procedure is not only time consuming-but also financially draining. I hope some laws will be enacted to make the process easier still.

Like some documents are already in the possession of the government-why do we have to get it separately? How come we have to make our own xerox for the documents that these agencies needs for processing. Why can’t they just have xeroxing machines within their offices so we don’t have to leave and find one. The requirements are not thoroughly explained for their use-so we don’t have get them if inapplicable.

Ang hirap talaga pag gobyerno at maski sa bangko -“pera mo na ay pinahihirapan ka pa”- as a taxi driver said that day.