You were sick for two weeks. Your company sick leave ran out on day three. Does anyone pay you for the rest?
Yes — SSS does, through the sickness benefit. It's a daily cash allowance for every approved day you couldn't work, funded by the contributions already coming out of your payslip. It also comes with four separate conditions, and missing any one of them voids the claim entirely.
- 90% Of your Average Daily Salary Credit, per approved day
- 4 days Minimum confinement — shorter absences pay nothing at all
- 120 days Maximum per calendar year, and unused days never carry over
- ₱600 The highest daily allowance anyone can get, at any salary
The short answer
Take your Monthly Salary Credit — the ₱500-step bracket your SSS contributions are based on — and divide it by 30. That's your Average Daily Salary Credit (ADSC). Multiply by 90%, then by the number of days you were confined. On an ₱18,000 salary, that's ₱600 × 90% = ₱540 a day. Ten days of confinement pays ₱5,400.
This Is Not Your Company Sick Leave
The SSS benefit doesn't stack with your paid sick leave — it starts only once that leave is gone. People plan around this wrongly more than any other part of the rules.
Your company sick leave is an employer benefit — usually paid at 100% of your salary, and often part of your Service Incentive Leave. The SSS sickness benefit is a government benefit funded by your contributions, paid at 90% of your salary credit, which is not the same as your salary. SSS explicitly requires that you have used up all your paid company sick leave for the current year before this kicks in.
So a realistic long illness looks like this:
| Days off | Who pays | How much |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–5 (your remaining sick leave) | Your employer | Full salary |
| Days 6–14 (sick leave exhausted) | SSS, advanced by your employer | 90% of ADSC per day |
Your employer pays the SSS portion on your normal payroll dates and claims reimbursement afterward, so you are not waiting on a government release to see the money. Self-employed and voluntary members have no employer in the middle — SSS pays them directly.
The Formula, One Step at a Time
Four steps. Only the first takes any real thought.
Step 1: Find your Monthly Salary Credit
Your Monthly Salary Credit (MSC) is not your salary. It's the bracket your salary falls into, rounded to the nearest ₱500, and it's what every SSS computation actually runs on. A ₱17,800 salary lands on an ₱18,000 MSC. A ₱23,400 salary lands on ₱23,500 — but for this benefit it gets capped at ₱20,000, which we'll explain shortly.
SSS doesn't use just one month, either. It takes the six highest MSCs in the 12 months before the semester you got sick. If your salary was steady across that period, all six are the same number and this step is trivial.
Step 2: Divide by 180 to get your ADSC
SSS adds up those six MSCs and divides by 180 — that's 30 days × 6 months. With a flat salary, the arithmetic collapses to something much simpler:
ADSC = MSC ÷ 30
An ₱18,000 MSC gives an ADSC of ₱600.
Step 3: Take 90% of it
The daily sickness allowance is 90% of the ADSC. ₱600 × 0.90 = ₱540 per day. That 10% haircut is the whole reason this benefit doesn't fully replace your income.
Step 4: Multiply by your approved days
₱540 × 10 days of confinement = ₱5,400. That's the claim.
Three Worked Examples
Example 1 — ₱18,000 a month, 10 days confined
| Monthly Salary Credit | ₱18,000 |
| ADSC (₱18,000 ÷ 30) | ₱600.00 |
| Daily allowance (90%) | ₱540.00 |
| Days confined | 10 |
| Total benefit | ₱5,400.00 |
Example 2 — ₱12,000 a month, 6 days confined
| Monthly Salary Credit | ₱12,000 |
| ADSC (₱12,000 ÷ 30) | ₱400.00 |
| Daily allowance (90%) | ₱360.00 |
| Days confined | 6 |
| Total benefit | ₱2,160.00 |
Example 3 — ₱35,000 a month, 20 days confined
The salary here is ₱35,000, but the salary credit the benefit runs on is not — this is where the cap starts costing you.
| Actual salary | ₱35,000 |
| Monthly Salary Credit used for the benefit | ₱20,000 (capped) |
| ADSC (₱20,000 ÷ 30) | ₱666.67 |
| Daily allowance (90%) | ₱600.00 |
| Days confined | 20 |
| Total benefit | ₱12,000.00 |
That ₱600 is the ceiling. Someone earning ₱25,000 and someone earning ₱90,000 receive exactly the same daily allowance.
Why the Benefit Stops Growing at ₱20,000
SSS deducts contributions on a Monthly Salary Credit that runs all the way up to ₱35,000 in the 2026 schedule. So why does the sickness benefit stop at ₱20,000?
Because your contribution is split between two different funds. The first ₱20,000 of MSC feeds the Regular SS Program — the pot that pays sickness, maternity, disability, and the formula pension. Everything above ₱20,000 is redirected into the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), a separate investment-linked retirement account. The MPF is still your money, but it pays out at retirement, not when you're sick.
Daily sickness allowance by Monthly Salary Credit
The line goes flat at ₱20,000. Earning more raises your contribution but not this benefit.
The 2026 SSS contribution table guide walks through that split bracket by bracket if you want to see where your own deduction lands.
The Four Rules That Decide Your Claim
The computation is the easy part. These are what actually get claims denied.
1. At least 3 contributions in the right 12 months
You need three posted monthly contributions inside the 12-month period immediately before the semester of your sickness. A semester here means two consecutive quarters — SSS excludes the semester the illness falls in, then counts 12 months backward from the month before it.
In practice: contributions from roughly the last year count, and you need three of them. Your lifetime total is irrelevant to this particular test.
2. At least 4 days of confinement
A confinement of three days or fewer pays nothing — not a reduced amount, nothing. Four days is a hard floor. Confinement can be at home or in a hospital; both count, as long as a doctor certifies it.
3. Company sick leave used up
If you're employed, all your paid sick leave for the current year has to be exhausted first. Sea-based OFWs are the exception here.
4. Notice filed on time
| Where you were confined | Who notifies whom | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| At home | You → your employer | Within 5 calendar days of the first day of confinement |
| At home | Your employer → SSS | Within 5 days of receiving your notice |
| In hospital | Your employer → SSS | Within 1 year of your discharge date |
The 5-day rule is the one people miss
For home confinement, the clock starts on your first day of illness — not the day you felt well enough to deal with paperwork. Text or email your HR on day one, even before you have a medical certificate. A late notice can shorten the payable period or void the claim outright.
The 120-Day and 240-Day Ceilings
Two separate limits apply, and they're easy to confuse.
120 days per calendar year. This is your annual allowance across all illnesses. It resets every January, and unused days do not carry over. If you used 40 days in March, you have 80 left for the rest of that year.
240 days for the same illness. This one spans years. If a single condition keeps you out past 240 cumulative days, SSS stops treating it as a sickness claim and reclassifies it as a disability claim, which has its own formula and its own filing route.
The most you can draw in a year
₱600 a day × 120 days = ₱72,000. That's the ceiling for any member, at any salary, in any single calendar year.
How to Actually File It
- Tell your employer immediately. Day one of a home confinement. Don't wait for the medical certificate.
- Get the medical certificate. Your doctor needs to certify the dates and the diagnosis. This is the document the whole claim rests on.
- Complete the Sickness Benefit Application. Your employer files it through My.SSS on your behalf. Self-employed and voluntary members file their own through their My.SSS account.
- Make sure your disbursement account is enrolled. SSS pays through the Disbursement Account Enrollment Module — a UMID ATM card, a PESONet bank account, an e-wallet, or a remittance partner. An unenrolled account is a common reason approved benefits sit unpaid.
- Wait for crediting. Funds are credited within about five banking days of settlement.
Estimate your own figure first with the SSS sickness benefit calculator so you know what to expect on the payslip, and check what your salary bracket actually is with the SSS contribution calculator.
Bottom Line
- The benefit is 90% of your Average Daily Salary Credit, per approved day of confinement — roughly your MSC ÷ 30 × 0.90.
- It starts only after your paid company sick leave is exhausted. The two don't stack.
- You need 3 contributions in the 12 months before the semester of sickness, and at least 4 days of certified confinement.
- For home confinement, notify your employer within 5 calendar days of the first day. This is the deadline most claims die on.
- The salary credit is capped at ₱20,000 for this benefit, so the daily allowance never exceeds ₱600 and a full year never exceeds ₱72,000.
- Run your numbers on the SSS sickness benefit calculator, and see the maternity equivalent — paid at 100%, not 90% — on the SSS maternity benefit calculator.
Sources
- Social Security System — Sickness Benefit: eligibility conditions, the 90% ADSC computation, notification deadlines, and the 120-day and 240-day limits.
- SSS Circular No. 2020-032 — sets the Regular SS Program salary credit used in benefit computation at a maximum of ₱20,000, with contributions above that directed to the Mandatory Provident Fund.
- Republic Act No. 11199 — the Social Security Act of 2018, which governs the Monthly Salary Credit structure and the sickness benefit entitlement.