Philippines: Pension of GSIS survivors via ATM in 2008

Starting next year, the pension benefits of survivorship pensioners of
the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) can be easily withdrawn
from any of the 6,000 ATMs in the country using the GSIS eCard Plus.

“By 2008, our survivorship pensioners will be enjoying the numerous
benefits of the eCard Plus, including the ease by which they can
receive their monthly pension using any Bancnet, Megalink or
Expressnet ATM,” said GSIS President and General Manager Winston F.
Garcia.

At present, the monthly pension of survivorship pensioners are still
being disbursed through checks. This means that they need to wait for
weeks for their checks to be printed, mailed, deposited, and cleared
(for three days) before they can withdraw their pension money.

But starting next year, their pensions will be electronically credited
to the eCard Plus. Unlike checks, they can instantly withdraw their
pension using any of the 6,000 ATMs nationwide.

“We are calling on all survivorship pensioners who have not yet
enrolled to the eCard Plus to enroll now in their respective GSIS
servicing office,” Mr. Garcia pointed out.

To enroll, all they need to bring are two valid IDs. During
enrollment, pensioners will have their pictures taken and their
fingerprint biometrics scanned and recorded.

The eCard Plus will be mailed to the address given by the survivorship
pensioner a few weeks after enrollment. After receiving the eCard
Plus, the survivorship pensioner must go to any GSIS Wireless
Automated Processing System (G-W@PS) kiosk to activate it.

Coinciding with the electronic crediting of their pension to the eCard
Plus, the annual renewal of active status of survivorship pensioners
will also be facilitated by the G-W@PS kiosk starting next year.

The annual renewal of active status is a requirement set by the GSIS
to all its pensioners—whether old-age or survivorship—to ensure the
receipt of their monthly pension.

To renew their active status, pensioners must go to their servicing
GSIS office or the nearest government establishment installed with a
G-W@PS kiosk on their birth month. Then, they must place their eCard
Plus on the card reader of the kiosk. Afterwards, they must choose the
“Annual

Recording” icon using the kiosk’s touch screen and then select any
pre-registered finger. Finally, they must lightly scan their finger
using the fingerprint scanner of the kiosk to complete the process.

Those qualified to receive survivorship pension include qualified
spouse and dependents of active members who died while in the service
and have met the service and contribution requirements, and old-age
pensioners.