Public Education Forum in Yap

During the 4th Regular FSMSS Board Meeting held in Yap, Francis Reg, the Public Information Officer for the Yap State Legislature, presented a petition by the citizens to the board requesting a public forum by the FSM Social Security Administration for the people of Yap. Due to the limited availability of time, the administrator deferred the forum to a later date in January.
On January 13, 2004, a public forum was held in the Small Business Development Center at 10:30 a.m. The FSM Social Security staffs present at the forum were FSMSS Deputy Administrator Dernista I.

Capelle, Yap Branch Manager John Kadannged, FSMSS Public Information Officer Francky Ilai, and Technical Specialist Arleen Sinem of Chuuk Branch Office who happened to be on Yap for a collections assignment. And as opposed to the 80 people who initially signed the petition, only 19 people showed up, one of which left early during the forum, making the total number of people who actually showed up for the forum to be 18.
The opening remarks, given by the Deputy Administrator, emphasized the importance of public education for the nation in terms of its social security program. In the administration’s efforts to build a bridge of understanding between the people and the program, public education is one of the priorities.
The forum was arranged so that the audience was given a chance to ask questions after each topic of discussion.
The topics discussed in the first presentation were the types of benefits offered by the FSM Social Security Program and the eligibility criteria for these benefits. In this presentation, the social security staff tried to shed light on what the program offers to its beneficiaries and the conditions set down by law that determine who is eligible for such benefits. In this presentation, the social security staff revealed that the number of quarters of coverage a person has plays a very important role in determining the insured status of a person and what kind of benefits he or she may be eligible for. It appeared that the audience was not familiar with certain nuances of the benefits and therefore questions were answered concerning the benefits and how to find out whether you were eligible. The FSMSS staff urged every employee to continuously check at their branch offices to see whether their employers reported their wages and that the FSMSSA was properly crediting them.
The forum progressed with presentations on evidences required when applying for social security benefits, benefit calculations, appeal procedures (those who are not satisfied with the Administration’s decisions regarding their benefits can appeal to the FSMSS Board of Trustees), and social security taxation for employers. The presentations outlined and explained the evidences or documents that would prove a person’s eligibility for benefits and gave the audience an idea of how much each of them would receive by teaching them the formula used to calculate each person’s monthly benefits.
The presentation on social security taxation explained taxation concepts that the employers were already familiar with and answered questions on what was unclear.
Miscellaneous topics included the earning test, overpayments/underpayments, and the changing of social security records. At the end of the last presentation, the floor was opened for any questions that did not fall under the topics that were in the presentations.
After answering questions, Deputy Administrator Dernista I. Capelle ended the forum by giving the closing remarks. The forum ended at 2:30 p.m.

Posted on 01/21/04.

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