After receiving plenty of ire from teachers, the Department of Education moved to ensure that teacher will receive their Net Take Home Pay (NTHP) which will not be less than Php 4,000.
For those who were affected by the previous deductions resulting to a salary less than Php4,000 due to deductions from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) was expected to receive the remainder on their October 30 pay, as per the advice of Undersecretary for Finance Victoria Catibog.
The NTHP threshold for teachers is safeguarded by DepEd Order No. 55 (DO 55), series of 2017, also known as the “Revised Guidelines on the Implementation of Php4,000 Net Take Home Pay for the Department of Education Personnel” signed by Education Secretary Leonor Briones.
“This is one of the Department’s move to protect the interest of our teachers and personnel. We are also examining emergency measures to assuage the situation of those who have been negatively affected by the recent loan deduction,” the Education Secretary emphasized.
Pursuant to Section 47 of the General Provisions of the Republic Act No. 10924, or the “General Appropriations Act of 2017” contributions and obligations of premiums and loans to GSIS and HDMF shall be given priority in deductions from salaries of employees. The same priority is extended to payments for Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
Secretary Briones reminded the DepEd Authorized Approving Officers (AAOs) to exercise due diligence in certifying and ensuring that the DepEd personnel applying for loans are well-informed of their capacity to pay, the interests and penalties that may incur due to delayed payment.
READ: Here are providers that offer SALARY LOAN for Teachers at LOW INTEREST RATES.
Thus, DepEd personnel are reminded to make sure they have the capacity to pay loans applied under the Automatic Payroll Deduction System (APDS), while other loans shall be paid directly to respective lenders.
Recent reports stated that teacher in public school have incurred Php178 billion worth of loans from Private Lending Institutions (PLIs) and Php123 billion debt due to GSIS as of December 2016.
“Although the net pay may increase or decrease, depending on the GSIS, HDMF, PhilHealth, BIR and other deductions, we would like to assure all DepEd personnel that their net pay, which goes to the provision of their daily needs, will not go lower than the P4,000 threshold. With this, we continue to identify and implement measures that will enable our teachers and personnel to manage their finances and retire comfortably in the future,” the Secretary added.
