Check SSS member contributions online, via SMS text

James Ryan Jonas

My father called me up yesterday asking for help regarding his Social Security System (SSS) member contributions. Apparently, his records were missing six years of supposed SSS payments and he wants me to check with SSS about this.
Of course, I did not immediately rush to the SSS main office in East Avenue, Quezon City, knowing that there’s always a long queue of people there checking and verifying their own member contributions or inquiring about the status of their loans or claims.
Here’s what I did to check my father’s SSS payments.
Text SMS Inquiry
This text-based system allows members to inquire about their monthly contributions, status of salary loan application and loan balances. The fee is P2.50 per SMS text inquiry and available to Smart, Talk N’ Text and Globe subscribers.
To check on the member contributions, send the following text to 288 (for Smart and Talk N’ text) or 2931 (for Globe):

  • SSS (space) CONTRI (space) SSS NUMBER (space) DATE OF BIRTH

“Date of birth” must be in the format MMDDYYYY.
I sent a message using that format with the correct information and — surprise! — after one day, I still have not received any reply from SSS. That’s P2.50 down the drain.
Anyway, if you still want to use the system to check the status of your salary loan, key in the following and send to 288 (for Smart and Talk N’ text) or 2931 (for Globe):

  • SSS (space) SLSTAT (space) SSS NUMBER (space) DATE OF BIRTH

To check your SSS loan balance, type the following on your cellphone and send to 288 (for Smart and Talk N’ text) or 2931 (for Globe):

  • SSS (space) LOANBAL (space) SSS NUMBER (space) DATE OF BIRTH

SSS Online Account
Since I did not get a reply via SMS, I tried to create an online account with SSS to be able to check my father’s SSS payments. You can also create one by going to http://www.sss.gov.ph/sss/index.jsp.
It seems delay is a common thing with SSS, because the account was activated only three hours after I created it.
The online system contains information about the member’s monthly SSS contributions, benefits, loan application status and premium payments made, among others.
SSS Main Office
The online system, however, does not indeed show my father’s supposed 6 years of payments back in the ’80s. This means I’ll have to resort to one final way: visiting the SSS main branch.
The good thing, though, is that the online system allows for setting an appointment date, which — hopefully — means I won’t have to brave long lines in the SSS office just to be able to process my request.
In case you need to drop by the SSS main office too, here is their address and contact information.

  • SSS Building
  • East Avenue, Diliman
  • Quezon City, Philippines
  • Telephone Number (632) 920-6401 ; 920-6446
James Ryan Jonas teaches business management, investments, and entrepreneurship at the University of the Philippines (UP). He is also the Executive Director of UP Provident Fund Inc., managing and investing P3.2 Billion ($56.4 Million) worth of retirement funds on behalf of thousands of UP employees.