The Department of Finance’s Small Business Wage Subsidy Php 51 billion program offers employees cash subsidies to formal workers of small businesses affected by COVID-19. The subsidy is quite generous reaching up to Php 8,000 for NCR, payable in two tranches:

This is a great help to many employees especially those whose companies are closed during the Expanded Community Quarantine (ECQ) and are receiving no work given no pay.  If you have already availed of the DOLE CAMP (worth Php 5,000), you can only avail of one tranche.

To be eligible, your company must possess the following qualities:

To be eligible, your employees must possess the following qualities. Please take note that they should NOT get paid by the employer for at least two weeks during the temporary closure or suspension of work:

It is important to note that the staff is NOT allowed to resign during the ECQ to avail of this subsidy. The company cannot also fire the staff during ECQ:

WARNING: If the staff resigned, or you know will resign, do NOT apply for the SBWS for him/her!

Please note that it’s critical that staff must have the three to be qualified:

a. A Tax Identification Number (TIN)
b. SSS Number and the company has paid SSS contributions until January 2020
c. Bank account details under the staff name (Note: SSS has added an Mhlullier Pera Padala option)

If you have no TIN number, you are automatically disqualified:

The SSS reiterated this warning as of May 5:

Please follow the rules — Do not lie on the employer undertaking as this is a sworn statement.

STEPS ON HOW TO APPLY FOR THE SMALL BUSINESS WAGE SUBSIDY (SBWS)

1. To check if your company is pre-qualified, please go to the BIR SBWS site. Click here and input your company’s TIN number:

If you are qualified, they will say Congratulations! and will offer you a passcode that you can use in the SSS site to proceed with your application.

If you are not qualified or there’s issues with the TIN, the window will ask you to email SBWS_BIRquery@bir.gov.ph with  the following information:
– TIN
– REGISTERED NAME
– BUSINESS NAME
– RDO where registered
– Reason why you are eligible

2. Go to the Philippine Social Security Site (https://www.sss.gov.ph/) where you will be asked to put in your SSS Employer Username and Password.

If you forgot your User ID or have not registered to SSS, you can click on the following buttons and follow the instructions.

SSS has made it easier that your Employer can apply for qualified employees. A few days ago, this was not possible yet. Today, you can now upload your employee TIN and bank account details manually.

3. Once you log in, click on the Small Business Wage Subsidy Button.

4. If you’re like most companies, you will see that your Qualified Employees are empty. Don’t worry as they are in the Lacking Credentials tab.

5. Click on the Lacking Credentials and they are all there. Click on the little box on the left if your employee is still with you and is eligible for the SBWS program. If the staff has resigned or left the company, do NOT apply for them anymore.

6. Clicking on the little box will open this box where you can manually input your staff’s TIN number and bank details.

7. If your staff does not have a bank account, you can pick the DBP Cash Padala Thru M Lhullier option. After inputting, click Save. Do this for all your staff.

8. After inputting all the details, click the I have read and agreed on the Employer’s Undertaking, and the Proceed button. Please note that while the announcement said that those who availed of CAMP will only be rewarded one tranche, the site does say we were denied because of CAMP.

Please read the content of the Employer’s Undertaking which says:

9. Once you press both, all the employees you requested for are now in the Confirmed Tab. You just have to be patient. Sometimes, the SSS site is down so you have to be patient and to do it over and over till you’re done.

10. To complete the process, it is important that you complete and email to SBWSCertifications@sss.gov.ph and SBWSQueries@sss.gov.ph the following completed and signed documents:

a. Certification Attesting to the Work and Pay Status of Employee (Click here). For simplicity, I just sent the same COVID-19 Establishment we used for CAMP
b. Employer Undertaking — You can find the files at the Employer Certification Template tab or you can click here for the SBWS_ERCertTemp (1) in PDF, or click SBWS_ERCertTemp (5) in Excel.

It will look like this:

11. And then you’re done. Please click Logout for your security and wait for them to assess your eligibility. Payments will be made via the following mode of payments, and the following tranches:

Please note that deadline for the SBWS has been moved to May 8, 2020 due to some hiccups on the SSS site. The site has been down consistently for a few days, but when I logged on the wee hours of the morning, it was quite stable and I was able to accomplish everything quickly. Just time your application properly.

That’s all folks! Good luck! For more details via the Department of Finance, click HERE.

Update on our SBWS APPLICATION on May 1st, 6 Days Later:

We got our SBWS approved and it’s now for crediting. Yehey!!!