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MANILA, Philippines - State-run Social Security System (SSS) on Tuesday said only members receiving a monthly salary of P10,000 or less are qualified to avail of its college education loan.
"The EALP aims to boost the country’s socio-economic growth by developing a larger pool of competent professionals and skilled workers. It will also help workers upgrade their knowledge and skills to secure better jobs and provide a brighter future for their family," Edgar Solilapsi, SSS officer-in-charge, said in a statement.
The P7-billion Educational Assistance Loan Program will receive a P3.5 billion subsidy from the national government, with SSS chipping in the balance of P3.5 billion.
“It can serve as a revolving fund that may be released to benefit more borrowers as these are recovered and collected,” Solilapsi said.
Besides the salary ceiling, the SSS guidelines provide that only members with at least 36 contributions - including three monthly premiums within the past 12 months - are eligible to borrow for educational expenses of one beneficiary.
"The beneficiaries can be the SSS members themselves, legal spouses or children. Unmarried members can use the loan for the education of their siblings," Solilapsi said.
"However, no substitution of beneficiary will be allowed to ensure that students finish their studies and obtain their degree," he added.
SSS guidelines further provide that the maximum loan amount per semester or trimester is P15,000 for college and P7,500 for a vocational or technical course, which must be a two-year degree program or higher.
Loan releases will be made payable to the school and must be used for tuition and miscellaneous fees only. Schools should be accredited by the Commission on Higher Education or the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
Member-debtors have three years to repay the loan for vocational-technical courses and up to five years for college degrees. The grace period before repayment, which will start on the date of the final loan release, is 18 months for semestral courses and 15 months for trimestral programs.
To apply, members must accomplish a loan application form and personally submit this and a school-issued billing statement to the nearest SSS branch. Application forms for the EALP are available at SSS branches or may be downloaded from www.sss.gov.ph.
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