Disability / Work Injury Benefit
The legal provisions on the work injuries and relevant benefits come from the Labour Code of the Philippines and the Act on Workmen’s Compensations of 1925.
The work injury benefits extend to Private-sector employees and domestic workers; public-sector employees, including military personnel and fire-fighters. The scheme is funded in the following manner. The Employer must provide: 30 pesos with monthly earnings of at least 14,750 pesos and 10 pesos with monthly earnings below 14,750 pesos. The maximum monthly earnings used to calculate contributions are 15,000 pesos. The Employees’ Compensation Commission periodically adjusts the maximum monthly earnings used to calculate contributions. Any deficit in the funding will be covered by the government.
The temporary injury benefits paid are 90% of the insured worker’s average daily covered earnings from the first day of disability for a work-related injury or illness for up to 120 days. This may be extended up to 240 days if further treatment is required. Daily covered earnings are the sum of the six highest months of covered earnings during the last 12 months before the six-month period (January–June, April–September, July–December, or October–March) in which the incapacity began divided by 180. The minimum daily benefit is 10 pesos. The maximum daily benefit is 200 pesos. The benefit is suspended if the beneficiary does not provide a doctor’s monthly medical report.
As far as permanent disability benefits are concerned, a monthly pension which is 115% of the old age pension.
A Dependent’s supplement is also given in case of permanent total disability, which is 10% of the insured worker’s disability pension or 250 pesos, whichever is greater, for each of the insured worker’s five youngest unmarried and unemployed children younger than age 21 (no age limit for disabled).
A Supplementary pension for permanent total and partial disability is also paid. The insured must have an assessed degree of disability of at least 20%. The degree of disability is assessed annually by a Social Security System. The pension is suspended if the beneficiary is gainfully employed (in the case of a total disability), fails to undergo an annual physical examination, does not provide a doctor’s quarterly medical report, or is fully rehabilitated.
There is also provision for medical benefits, which include medical, surgical, and hospital services; rehabilitation; appliances; and skills and entrepreneurial training.
Lastly, survivors are also given pension: 100% of the permanent total disability pension the deceased received or was entitled to receive is paid.
A dependent’s supplement of 10% of the permanent total disability pension the deceased received or was entitled to receive is paid for each of the insured person’s five youngest unmarried, unemployed children under 21 years (no age limit for disabled). The pension is shared between the spouse and dependent, unmarried children under 21 years (no age limit for disabled) earning less than 300 pesos a month. If there is no eligible spouse or dependent child, the monthly pension (excluding dependent supplements) is paid to dependent parents for up to 60 months, minus the number of months the pension was paid to the deceased before his or her death. Public and private health workers who contracted severe COVID-19 infection received compensation of 100,000 pesos, while the families of those who died as a result of contracting COVID-19 were compensated with 1 million pesos.
Source: ISSA Country Profile for the Philippines 2016; Workmen Compensation Act 1925; §197-199 of the Labour Code, as amended, Bayanihan Heal as One Act
