Dave Hounddriver Posted December 17, 2010 Posted December 17, 2010 I know it is wise to ask a lawyer. It is my experience that many lawyers will give a lot of false hope for a little bit of up front money so I will research this question on this board first, THEN go to a lawyer if the prospects seem good.My wife, (actually long term live in partner if that makes a difference), has been encouraged by her family to seek SSS benefits from the death of her father, many, many years ago. If that is reasonable then I shall donate some money for the cause but it seems far fetched to me.When my wife was still a baby, her father and mother separated. The mother went to live with another man in Manila and have another family. My wife, her sister, and 1 brother stayed with her father in Leyte. An older brother went to live in Manila on his own to be close to his mother, who had very little to do with her children from then on.When my wife was 7 her father died. From then on she, and her sister, lived with aunties until she moved out on her own. Both brothers then lived in Manila on their own.My wife is now 23. This happened a long time ago. The father did have a lot of work it seems so he did pay SSS. For some reason the family seems to think there is money at SSS from the deceased father that the children can claim. It is my belief that the mother was still legally married to the father up until the time of death, even though she lived with another man in another province. It is my belief that SHE would be entitled to any death benefits.Anyone care to share their opinions? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted December 17, 2010 Posted December 17, 2010 I know it is wise to ask a lawyer. It is my experience that many lawyers will give a lot of false hope for a little bit of up front money so I will research this question on this board first, THEN go to a lawyer if the prospects seem good.My wife, (actually long term live in partner if that makes a difference), has been encouraged by her family to seek SSS benefits from the death of her father, many, many years ago. If that is reasonable then I shall donate some money for the cause but it seems far fetched to me.When my wife was still a baby, her father and mother separated. The mother went to live with another man in Manila and have another family. My wife, her sister, and 1 brother stayed with her father in Leyte. An older brother went to live in Manila on his own to be close to his mother, who had very little to do with her children from then on.When my wife was 7 her father died. From then on she, and her sister, lived with aunties until she moved out on her own. Both brothers then lived in Manila on their own.My wife is now 23. This happened a long time ago. The father did have a lot of work it seems so he did pay SSS. For some reason the family seems to think there is money at SSS from the deceased father that the children can claim. It is my belief that the mother was still legally married to the father up until the time of death, even though she lived with another man in another province. It is my belief that SHE would be entitled to any death benefits.Anyone care to share their opinions? Hey Dave,This is out of my league in trying to understand law, especially Philippine law. But would it be worth the time and trouble to determine the actual entitlements? The parents were separated and never reconciled. If I was the ex husband, I wouldimmediately revise the beneficiary from ex-wife to my children a long time ago. Good luck -- Jake 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Call me bubba Posted February 19, 2011 Posted February 19, 2011 contact the local SSS office.however after 15 plus yrs. they may decline. who knows? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hounddriver Posted April 28, 2012 Author Posted April 28, 2012 UPDATE: I forgot to update the results of this so I can fill in now for anyone curious. There was money. It turned out to be 12K pesos (big deal right). The attorney kept 1/3 for his trouble. Now there was 8K. The one sister kept 3,500 because she was the one to do all the 'work' of running around. That left 1.5K each for the other siblings. Then they had to have a party with 'blessing' for the departed father. It left them in debt. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billten Posted April 28, 2012 Posted April 28, 2012 It left them in debt. I'm sorry bai but for grim humor i gotta give you a hahahahahaha, too funny... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hounddriver Posted April 28, 2012 Author Posted April 28, 2012 I'm sorry bai but for grim humor i gotta give you a hahahahahaha, too funny... Yeah. Its one of those 'gotta give your head a shake' moments. And the worst of it is, the little bit of money involved widened a family rift between the 3 sibs and the one who raked off the 'lion's share' 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike S Posted April 29, 2012 Posted April 29, 2012 When my father-in-law passed a while back the SSS paid a little towards his funeral and later on his asawa went down to check to see if he had any money in the SSS (he was 73 but never with drew any SSS) ..... she found out he had 30,000p ..... they gave the money to her ..... it didn't involve a lawyer and none of the siblings fought over it in fact no one has asked to BORROW any of it and she still has a bit over 20,000p still left after more than a year ..... as I have said before many times ...... I am lucking to have married into this family ..... other than to help pay for the hospital bill (3 different hospitals) and the funeral we have not had to lay out any funds ..... we do send a couple of thousand pesos to her mother each month to kinda help out with rice and such but that is all ...... really a great family .... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jode Posted April 29, 2012 Posted April 29, 2012 (edited) I'm sorry bai but for grim humor i gotta give you a hahahahahaha, too funny... Yeah. Its one of those 'gotta give your head a shake' moments. And the worst of it is, the little bit of money involved widened a family rift between the 3 sibs and the one who raked off the 'lion's share' Reminds me of a case when a chatmate and former paramour of mine asked me to help her with the compensation due to Philippine veterans of the U.S. army in WWII that was authorized by President Obama. She had a grandpa well into his 80's who was an officer in the force of over 150,000 filipinoes called to serve in the U.S. army shortly before the outbreak of WWII. They were always denied benefits and compensation for their service, and their long struggle for compensation was finally resolved by an offer of a one time payment by the administration to the few survivors from that time. She had heard rumors of such a payment and knowing I was a veteran asked me to help them find out what they had to do for their grandpa to get it. I did some web searches and sent her the links to the info she needed to find out how he could get his benefits. Turns out her grandpa was eligible for $6,000, as I recall, and thats when the trouble began. Everyone in the family thought this was the answer to their prayers, and would give them everything they always wanted in life. $6,000 was not nearly enough of course to fulfill everyones dreams of houses, college educations, computers, cell phones, dental work, business capitol, u name it. Grandpa died a few months after getting his windfall, probably of a broken heart after seeing how his money had torn the family apart. Everyone fighting with each other and angry at him over the division of the spoils. A lesson in how money is the root of all evil maybe. Only with time and probably out of shame for their behavior was he returned to the esteem he once had with the family before he had $6000 for them to share. Edited April 30, 2012 by jode 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i am bob Posted April 30, 2012 Posted April 30, 2012 I guess in a way having money come in suddenly will show you just what your family is... And you don't have to be Filipino to fit into this catagory! I have seen familys fall apart over $50 and I have seen familys become closer over vast sums! I am pretty sure that my future family will be one of the good ones - just from how they have reacted so far! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashanti Posted May 1, 2012 Posted May 1, 2012 This is also reminded me of my mothers extended family. My mother bought her parents land deep up in the mountains in another island. It’s a reasonable size land with enough coconut and fruit trees to make a living if you do the hardwork otherwise its really not much of use to my mother. The purchase was more of a face saving gesture for her parents not to look dependent on her. Anyway, she had her brother (and his family) who lives nearby look after the land for a fee as my mother live on another island. My mother also pays the yearly taxes and so forth. These goes on for years and never in all those years did my mother received an income from the land. Everytime she asked her brother, he would say that there are no fruit crops not even from the few coconut trees and that the land was only good for grazing animals. A few years ago, her brother died. Then we heard that his brothers children where fighting and ready to kill each other to own the land. It took my mothers other sister to go up to the mountains and tell off the brothers that they are fighting for land they don’t even belong to their father as it is her sisters land! :mocking: 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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