The Philhealth Household Employer Under the Kasambahay Law: Register, Pay, Report [Updated July 31, 2014]

UPDATE: On December 2013, the government launched the 3-in-1 kasambahay registration system for SSS, Philhealth, and HDMF. This change affects the forms you need to submit in steps 1 to 3 of this guide. The contribution and contribution reporting process (steps 4 and 5) remain the same, as far as we know. Please click on the link to download and learn how to use the Kasambahay and Household Employer Unified Registration Form.

Under the Kasambahay Law, kasambahays need to be registered as Philhealth members. If your kasambahay is not yet registered as an Individually Paying Member of the Philhealth, you could fulfill the Kasambahay Law by registering as a household employer and declaring your kasambahay as a household employee.

So what are the steps for registering as a Philhealth household employer? And what are your obligations after you have registered?

Here's a step-by-step guide:

1. To register as employer, fill out the forms ER-1 and ER-2.

NOTE: As per my call to Philhealth, if you report your kasambahay's start date to be earlier than the month that you register, then you and your kasambahay will be required to pay arrears based on the amounts required before the Kasambahay Law, with a 2% penalty (more or less – I am not sure about the exact computation) on the amount due to you as employer.

2. To register your kasambahay as member, have him/her fill out the Philhealth Member Registration Form for enrollment or to update member details.

3. To complete your registration, submit the forms and required supporting documents to a Philhealth office.

4. Start paying your kasambahay's Philhealth contributions.

• If your kasambahay is earning less than P5,000 per month, you are required to pay P200 per month. You shoulder this entirely.
• If your kasambahay is earning from P5,000 to P7,999 per month, you are required to pay P100 while your kasambahay is required to contribute P100 as well.
• If your kasambahay is earning P8,000 or more per month, click on the Premium Contribution Table link at Philhealth's Employed page to see how much you and your employee needs to pay. 

Remit your employees' Philhealth contributions on or before the 10th of the following month. Use the PhilHealth Premium Payment Slip to remit contributions.

Where to pay: Click on the link to find a list of Philhealth accredited collecting partners.

5. Report your payment to Philhealth on or before the 15th of the following month using the Remittance Report Form, or RF-1. To do this, you either go to a Philhealth office or report online using the Electronic Premium Reporting System (EPRS). Bring a USB to download the files you need for the EPRS.

The Nanay Notebook is written by Blessie Adlaon, a work-at-home and homeschooling mom of four. Check out our About page to know more about this blog's author and our policies on advertising, press releases, and reposting.

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SSS, HDMF, Philhealth, and the Kasambahay Law [UPDATED July 20, 2014]

By this time, all of us must have heard about the Kasambahay Law. We know that under the law, we are required to pay for our household worker's SSS, HDMF (PAG-IBIG), and Philhealth benefits.

How do you go about it, and what do you need to know?

SSS

If your kasambahay has been an SSS member in the past, you can fulfill the Kasambahay Law by simply registering your kasambahay as voluntary member and shouldering your legal share of the SSS payments. You do not need to register as employer. 

I got the above information from a supervisor at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) contact center. (The agent passed the phone to her when she found out I was writing all these in my blog.)

If you are using this method of SSS payments for your kasambahay, the DOLE advises that you clearly indicate in the contract that although your kasambahay is registered as voluntary member, you are shouldering your legal share of the payments as employer. And make sure to keep your own copy of all receipts.

To change your kasambahay's membership status to Voluntary, simply make payments in his/her behalf using his/her SSS number, using the SSS Form RS-5. According to the SSS website, "Posting of said payment will change the membership status from covered employee, self-employed, OFW or non-working spouse to a voluntary paying member." 

If your kasambahay has never been an SSS member, then he/she cannot begin as a voluntary member (SSS rules forbid that; don't ask me why) and you, alas, will need to register as employer. I have a separate article on that. Click the link to read The SSS Household Employer Under the Kasambahay Law: Register, Pay, Report.

Now you can start paying your kasambahay's SSS contributions. Do so before the 10th of the following month. For your convenience, it is better to pay through SM Payment Centers, Bayad Centers, or SSS accredited banks, such as Chinabank, Metrobank, and BPI.

How much should you pay? See the table below (click to enlarge). If your kasambahay is registered as a voluntary member, then the required contribution is found on the last column (SE/VM/OFW).

Note that if your kasambahay is earning less than five thousand pesos per month, you are required to shoulder 100% of the contribution. If your kasambahay is earning five thousand pesos or more, the contributions are divided, as indicated on the table:

QUESTION: What if our kasambahay has been with us since the year 2000 but we only began paying contributions this year? Click on the link to see the answer: SSS Arrears and the Kasambahay Law.

Philhealth

According to the DOLE, you can register your kasambahay as Individually Paying Member (IPM). Do this by filling out the Philhealth Member Registration Form and submitting it, along with supporting documents, to the nearest Philhealth office. To find the Philhealth office nearest you, call the Philhealth contact center at (02) 441-7442.

As IPM, your kasambahay is required to pay P600 quarterly or P2,400 per year. As employer, you are required to shoulder this in full if your kasambahay is earning less than P5,000. If your kasambahay is earning  P5,000 or more, you shoulder half of the payments while your kasambahay shoulders the other half.

Now if you want to register as employer rather than register your kasambahay as an IPM, I've written a separate article on that. Please click the link to read The Philhealth Household Employer Under the Kasambahay Law: Register, Pay, Report.

Where to pay: Click on the link to find a list of Philhealth accredited collecting partners.

PAG-IBIG/HDMF UPDATED! (June 11, 2013)

For HDMF, you don't have to will be advised to register as employer, contrary to what their hotline agent told me earlier this month. I found this out because I went to the HDMF office today to register our househelp, and lo and behold, they told me to register as employer!

To see the steps on how to register as employer, click on the link.

On the other hand, I have just been on the phone with the Marketing Department of the HDMF main office in Cubao. Although they still advise that we register as employer, they admitted that there is no real sanction if your kasambahay is registered as individual payor, as long as you shoulder your legal share of his/her payments and have proof of doing so.

Whether or not you are registering as employer, you should register your kasambahay as member online. Click on the link to reach their online registration portal.

After your online registration, print out the Member Data Form that will be generated. Submit that form to the nearest HDMF office, along with

1. proof of income, which is basically a statement from you saying that Mr./Ms. So-and-so has been working with you since (the date of first employment) and is earning (amount) per month, and 
2. two of your kasambahay's valid IDs.

What valid IDs can you use for PAG-IBIG application if you do not have a birth certificate?

• Voter's ID (you don't need a birth certificate to get this; just fill out the form)
• Postal ID (you don't need a birth certificate to get this either)
• Philhealth ID (you can get Philhealth ID using these documents: http://www.philhealth.gov.ph/downloads/membership/pmrf.pdf)
• SSS ID (you can get an SSS ID using these documents: https://www.sss.gov.ph/sss/uploaded_images/forms/normal/e1.pdf)

Then, you can remit payments at the nearest PAG-IBIG office. Unfortunately, banks only accept loan repayments, not member contributions.

The PAG-IBIG website also says we can now pay monthly contributions through Gcash. However, there has been issues with the posting of payments this way, and there is currently no way that I have found of verifying posting of contributions via online.

On the other hand, you will receive a confirmation from Globe that your payment has been processed, so if you keep records of these verifications, you should be able to update your posted contributions using such records.

How much to pay? PAG-IBIG contributions are 4% of the kasambahay's salary, with maximum salary set at P5,000.

So if your kasambahay is earning, say, P4,000 per month, you pay the entire 4%, or P160, every month.

If your kasambahay's salary is P5,000 or more, you need to pay P200, but you can split this amount 50-50 between you and your kasambahay, so you only pay P100 each.

More Info

DOLE's FAQ: If you have more questions about the Kasambahay Law, like "Is our live-out yaya considered a kasambahay?" or "Am I required to provide my kasambahay with shampoo and soap, etc.?" then check out this FAQ published by the DOLE: Q&A on Batas Kasambahay.

For an easy-to-understand document on the Batas Kasambahay, here's GMA's Batas Kasambahay infographic.

Sample contract that you can use for your kasambahay: check out Smart Parenting's sample kasambahay contract. (Look at the bottom of the Smart Parenting page for the contract links.)

The Nanay Notebook is written by Blessie Adlaon, a work-at-home and homeschooling mom of four. Check out our About page to know more about this blog's author and our policies on advertising, press releases, and reposting.

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FREE DOWNLOAD: The Philippine K-12 Curriculum

This year, the Philippines finally took the big step and implemented the K-12 curriculum. It's true, we are ill-prepared for it, but in my humble opinion, this step is something like childbirth: No matter how much you prepare for it, you are often still caught flat-footed when the time comes -- but it's an inevitable step you need to take before you can get on with the extremely rewarding business of raising a child.

In any case, I know you're here not to hear about how much I love the K-12 curriculum and why. You want the curriculum download. So here it is. Please right-click on the links below and click "Save link as" to save the files on your computer:

Full K-12 curriculum (21.2 MB)
English and Mother Tongue (2.5 MB)
Filipino, Health, ESP (2.2 MB)
Filipino, Grades 1-10 (2.84 MB)
Araling Panlipunan (576 KB)
Mathematics (1.3 MB)
Science (10.6 MB)
Kindergarten (1.2 MB)

(Files uploaded June 18, 2012)

UPDATE: NEW English K-12 curriculum (uploaded April 17, 2013)

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The Sound of Scam

I had an interesting experience today at Sulit.com.ph. I found this ad that was looking for work-at-home Web developers in the Philippines, inviting interested parties to apply to archer@debtresourcegroup.com.

"Wow," I thought. "Some of my readers might like to know about this."

So I asked the ad poster for details on the job. Naturally, I would not want to post it on the Nanay Notebook if I wasn't even half sure it was not a scam.

To establish their credibility, I asked them for the name of their company, some company background, the name of the contact person, and their payment schedule and methods.

Here's the "professional" reply I got (font styles, colors, and highlights not mine):

As you can see, this is a "work from home" job opening so there is no physical address. The company itself is in the United States.

We would like to reserve our right to privacy and will only disclose information during our screening and interview of applicants who think they are qualified.

I have been in the offshore outsourcing industry for a couple of years now and have worked with a couple of U.S. based firms who outsource full-time and part-time jobs to the Philippines. And every experienced independent work-from-home worker is fully aware that there is always a concern out there for the "validity" of the job and the company. However, this "comes with the territory". Payments are made at the "back end" so there will be a "waiting time" that may cause apprehension.Needless to say, there is no company that pays upfront. It is always done in the back end. I cannot even say that MY OWN salary is guaranteed. What if the company folds up tomorrow or days from now? There are so many companies in the US that are losing money and closing down left and right. Even giant corporations have filed for BK.

In actuality, there is as much risk to the employer as there is to the employee because the services of the employee also cannot be guaranteed. Offshore oursourced jobs entail a higher level of trust from both parties. Some might ask for a "guarantee" and all we can say is "it is what it is". One tip I can advise your readers to keep in mind is that "if the employer is charging an application fee or joining fee, then there is more reason to worry". In our case, may I reiterate that we are NOT charging any fee. We are just looking for someone to do the job.

And just FYI, we have interviewed 3 people today and are currently evaluating them.

My dear readers, may I just use this as an example of the kind of work-at-home job you do NOT want to apply to. Why?

Mr. Job Poster was right on one thing: there is naturally less security for both the company and the worker when you take a work-at-home job. How do you know you will get paid? How do you know they will not run away from you after you have submitted the work they needed you to do?

But he is wrong in one thing: it does not need to "come with the territory." A good and legitimate employer, being aware of such issues, will bend over backwards to establish its credibility with its applicants. This includes, at the very least, giving out a physical address, phone number, and the name of a real person to contact. Ideally, they should have a Web site. After all, in this day and age, a Web site costs a mere $10 to get and about 8 hours to create. It may not be the slick, professional-looking Web site you would desire, but it's still better than nothing, which is what www.debtresourcegroup.com is.

And if the company folds up, that's no excuse to not pay your employees, no excuse to say that salaries are not guaranteed. There may be legal loopholes, yes, maybe, but a decent human being will make sure that his workers get their due.

Mr. Poster says he would like to reserve their right to privacy "and will only disclose information during our screening and interview of applicants who think they are qualified." What are they hiding? If you are a recruiting agency, I can understand why you would not want to divulge the name of your company, although I know reputable recruiting companies that stand proud by their name -- but to not even give out the name of a contact person? No physical address?

It is a lame excuse to say that since the job is a homebased one, "there is no physical address. The company itself is in the United States." You cannot form a legal U.S. company (or even a legal Philippine company, for that matter) without a physical address. My virtual company, Escrive Writing and Editing, operates from my home. Therefore, that is the physical address of my company. My son's "school," Kolbe Academy, actually operates its homeschool program from a church in Napa, California. Therefore, the church is their physical address.

Mr. Poster reiterates that they are not charging any fee to applicants, so they are more trustworthy than those outright scams that make you pay money so you can do the job.

Not necessarily true. There are several stories on Odesk where the service provider did a lot of work, no "application fee" involved, but did not get paid in the end. The lack of an application fee is no sign of trustworthiness.

So what's my take on work-at-home job posts such as this? Is it a scam? I would not categorically say so -- but it sure walks and talks like one.

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The Commercialization of Childhood

I've just seen this disturbing video on YouTube, and I think all parents should see it. How aggressively is media targeting our children? And what messages, exactly, are they deliberately sending our kids?

More importantly, are we harming our children while we think we are helping them? For instance, when we let our kids watch Baby Einstein, are we helping them or are we actually hurting them? What could be so bad about Dora the Explorer?

You may be shocked when you hear the answers.

The video is an hour long, but I promise you, it's well worth your time.



How do we protect our children from this kind of manipulation and perversion? Please feel free to share your suggestions.

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Philhealth FAQ

Short news: Last Tuesday, my husband Neil suffered a cardiac episode, so we had to rush him to the National Kidney Transplant Institute – which, by the way, is currently the cheapest good-quality government hospital in Quezon City.

(Special thanks to Neil's excellent cardiologist, Dr. Joseph Michael Jaro, who obviously knows very well what he's doing. I would recommend him to anybody. Doc, you rock!)

It was a mere case of supraventricular tachycardia (SVT, i.e., too-fast heartrate and too-low blood pressure) so we were home the very next day.

But during that incident, I learned a few things about Philhealth that I would like to share with you today.

Question: If I have been a Philhealth member for only one month, can I use it if I get hospitalized today?

No. Alas, although I had been a Philhealth member for years, I had neglected paying my dues since I started doing freelance work. I had only been able to start paying again last month, in August, so I was not able to get Philhealth benefits for my husband, who shares my Philhealth insurance.

In order for one to get Philhealth benefits, one needs to have made at least three payments in a span of six months. Since Neil got hospitalized in September, I could have gotten Philhealth benefits if, say

• we had paid in June, July, and August; or
• March, April, May; or even
• March, May, August.

Question: Can I pay in advance?

Yes. In fact, just to be sure I never get into the same predicament again, I have already paid my dues until December. In January of 2012, I will probably pay for the whole year. (You can pay for a maximum of one year advance only. I've heard that Philhealth does not accept payment for more than 12 months advance.)

Retroactive payments are not allowed.

Question: Does my spouse still need to get his own Philhealth account, if he/she is already my dependent?

No – and yes. 

For immediate purposes, your spouse does not need a Philhealth account if he/she is listed as your dependent. You spouse will get Philhealth benefits under your account.

However, the question is, what happens if you die – or retire?

Once a Philhealth member retires at 60, he or she qualifies as a non-paying member – but only if he/she has already made at least 120 Philhealth payments. That's approximately 10 years of monthly dues.

If I retire and my spouse hasn't got those 120 Philhealth payments in his name, then I will have Philhealth benefits in my old age, when I need them most, but he won't.

There is also the question of "What if the Philhealth member dies?" Then the member's dependents will be left high and dry. You do not want that to happen to your loved ones, especially if the cost is only P100 per month.

UPDATE 1: As of June 2013, the required Philhealth contribution has been increased to P150 per month for individually paying members and P175 per month for employed members, total of employer and employee contribution.

UPDATE 2: I just found out that if you had been a member of Medicare, the government insurance program before Philhealth existed, your contributions in Medicare will be counted as part of the 120 Philhealth contributions required for you to qualify for free lifetime membership after retirement.

More questions?

I hope this post has answered some of your Philhealth questions. For more questions (or to verify what I have written here), you may call their customer service hotline at (02) 441-7442.

You can also ask some of your questions in this blog. Perhaps some of the readers – or maybe even I – can answer them.

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FREE Downloadable Printable Award-Winning (and Perfectly Legal) Children's Books!

I'm supposed to be working to make up for yesterday's lost work day, as I had to play nurse to hubby who had an attack of supraventricular tachycardia (in layman's terms: super-fast heartbeat, super-low blood pressure, very dangerous. It sent him to the ICU in 2009.)

But just as I was about to start working, my friend Rich (pilya, maganda, at may magic powers) sent me this excellent link: http://canvas.ph/downloads.htm.

Mommies (and daddies), if you haven't clicked on the link yet, do so now. It will lead you to this excellent site where you can download wonderful, downloadable, printable, and absolutely free children's books written by Filipino writers. (Tarie, are you reading this?)

What's more, the downloading and printing out are perfectly legal, authorized by the publishers themselves, God bless them!

Of course, once you've read these wonderful, award-winning stories to your kids, you might want to buy the hardback versions. They are available in Fully Booked, the Ayala Museum and at 1/of Gallery in Serendra.

Let's support Philippine literature and early literacy! And cheers to free books!

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Free Download: The Conscious Partnering Conference 2011

On May 23 to 27, there will be a FREE Conscious Partnering Conference, which will teach us all how we can create amazing relationships in all areas of our lives.

Whether you are managing your own employees in your own business, managing your boss and colleagues at your place of employment, trying to maintain an intimate relationship, or raising kids and a husband (or wife), these talks can help you.

For me, the best part about it is that registration is free! What's more, if we can't make time to join the live call, we can download the recordings afterward.

I've registered five minutes ago. If you wish to register too, you can go to http://consciouspartnering.net/.

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Free Download: The Philippine DepEd Curriculum for Second Year High School

Here's the next installment of the Department of Education's high school curriculum:  second year (sophomore) subjects:

English II
Mathematics II
Science II
Filipino II
Araling Panlipunan II
Music and Arts II
Physical Education II
Edukasyon sa Pagpapahalaga II

I don't have the curricula for the third year and fourth year subjects yet. Will post when I find them.

DOWNLOAD TROUBLE? We've been receiving reports that Docstoc has been requiring payments. If this happens to you, you can also download the zipped files for free HERE.

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Free Download: The Philippine DepEd Curriculum for First Year High School

Here's the new high school curriculum that the Department of Education will be using in 2011. If I am not mistaken, it is based on the Understanding by Design (UbD) curriculum framework -- a rather difficult framework, resulting in a rather complex curriculum design.

So far, I have the curricula for year 1 and year 2 subjects.

Click here to download the Philippine freshman curriculum for the following subjects:

English I
Mathematics I
Science I
Filipino I
Araling Panlipunan I
Music and Arts I
Physical Education I
Edukasyon sa Pagpapahalaga I

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Free Professional-Looking Blogger Templates

Have you ever wondered about those blogs that look like they were designed professionally? I have.

I mean, for a personal blog like the Nanay Notebook, I felt a regular template such as the one I use now is fine, but for a business blog like Escrive.com, I needed something that looked much nicer.

Well, I've finally found a place to get all those nice free Blogger templates: http://btemplates.com/!

There were so many templates to choose from, and the best part: they're all free!

How to change your template?

1. Just download the template you want, unzip the ZIP file, find the XML file within.

2. Go to your Blogger Design tab, click Edit HTML, and before you do anything else, if you have a previous template, click on Download Full Template in case you ever change your mind and want to revert to it.

3. Now to upload your new template, click on Browse, find your new template's folder, then click the XML file within. The in the same Blogger page, click Upload.

4. Preview and, if you like what you see, click Save Template.

Now go get your own professional-looking blog site!

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FREE E-book Download: How to Make Money from Your Blog

For all my readers who've been asking me how one can make money from one's blog, here's an e-book that will answer your questions much better than I can: Six Figure Affiliate Blogging by Zac Johnson.

To download it, just go to www.BloggingTips.com. A pop-up will show that will offer you a free download of the e-book. You just need to leave your name and e-mail and subscribe to the blog.

I've read it and it's chockful of useful information. I must tell you, though, that if you follow it, you'll need to do a LOT of work on your blog. If you don't have a lot of free time, you'll have to do it little by little, as I intend to do. The important thing is to start.

So what are you still here for? Go download, and happy reading.

Disclosure: This site and author are receiving no compensation or rewards for promoting this e-book. We are not affiliated with BloggingTips.com.

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Is Civimom a Scam?

UPDATE: More than two years after I posted the article below, I received the email below from a concerned mom. I have her personal details but am not divulging them here for obvious reasons.

Here is the email:

I can definitely say that they're not a scam as I worked with them for a few months before moving on. It was one of the first online websites I came across starting out and yes, it did take some time before they responded to my application, probably a month if i'm not mistaken. Their rates are relatively low for a seasoned transcriptionist but for moms or others just starting out, I believe it's a good place to start.
--------

A reader asked me about Civimom today, asking if the company was a scam because "one of the requirements for this job is to pass a 10-document test," and I had mentioned in How to Find Work-at-Home Jobs and Not Get Scammed that you should not send the client free sample work other than what you already have in your portfolio.

The company certainly may ask you to do an assigned work, but it should be minimally compensated.

Now one thing I keep telling moms before they try out an online opportunity is

Always Google the name of the company and the word "scam" so that you can see if there are any scam reports on the company.

So that's what I did for Civimom.

What I found is that there are no explicit reports that Civimom is a scam. But I also found that of those that did apply, either they were still waiting for the results of their application or they were told that they did not pass the application.

So am I saying that Civimom is a scam?

I am saying that I have found no proof that it is not.

If any of you know of anybody who has worked for and has been paid by Civimom, do leave a comment, then e-mail me your full name and contact number at NanayNotebook@gmail.com so that I can confirm that you are making the testimonial of your own free will, without any material or non-material coercion from the company.

Testimonials without the required details will be deleted.

Other comments are welcome.

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Free Download: The Philippine Basic Education Curriculum for Elementary School Students

School has started for the rest of the Philippines, and while my kids and I had begun informally homeschooling last April, we weren't following a specific curriculum yet.

Well, Teacher Mommy has finally realized that while teaching spontaneously is fun, a lesson plan and a curriculum are invaluable when it comes to pacing and directing your lessons.

So I downloaded the Philippine Basic Education curriculum today for all elementary subjects. This is the curriculum used by the Department of Education. We'll be following it in our household, and I'll be supplementing it as necessary.

If any of you homeschooling moms are interested in using these curricula as well, you can download the zipped files for free HERE.
 

Looking for the NEW K-12 curriculum? Click on the link to go to our K-12 curriculum download page.

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