Once again, the pension computation

Here is a question this blog has answered several times but bears repeating since sss is primarily a pension fund -

My question is, how is Pension credit calculated after completing 120 monthly contribution. Example, paying 1000+ for 7 years, then may gap na 10 years, then continued paying for the maximum MSC in the last 3 years to complete the 120 months. Q2. if you continue paying maximum for the next 5 years, how is the Pension credit calculated?

there are 2 important things in the existing pension formula -
one is the AMSC or average monthly salary credit that the member's payments are based on -
the other is the number of CYS  or credited years of service of the member -

the pension computation can be found in Section 12 of RA 8282 -      
"(a) The monthly pension shall be the highest of the following amounts:

  (1) The sum of the following:                                                                                  
       (i)     300 hundred pesos plus
       (ii)     20% of the average monthly salary credit; plus
       (iii)    2% of the average monthly salary credit for each credited year of service in excess of 10 years;    
             
                 300 +  (20% X AMSC)  +  (2% X  AMSC  X ( CYS - 10)

OR

  (2) 40% of the average monthly salary ;  OR

  (3)  1,000 provided that the monthly pension shall in no case be paid for an aggregate amount of less than 60 months


(b) notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, the minimum pension shall be 1,200 for members with at least 10 credited years of service and 2,400 for those with 20 credited years of service

AMSC is "the result obtained by dividing the sum of the last 60 MSC immediately preceding the semester of contingency by 60"  (in this case, the contingency is the retirement date) "    OR

"the result obtained by dividing the sum of all the monthly salary credits paid prior to the semester of contingency by the number of monthly contributions paid in the same period, 

whichever is greater."

CYS has changed its definition since RA 8282 was ratified but ....

"For a member covered prior to Jan 1985 , it is 1985 minus the calendar year of coverage PLUS the number of calendar years in which 6 or more contributions have been paid from Jan 1985 to the calender year containing the semester prior to the contingency.  For a member covered in or after Jan 1985, it is the number of calendar years in which 6 or more contributions have been paid from the year of coverage up to the calendar year containing the semester prior to the contingency."

This is not in RA 8282, in 2002,  the Commission changed the definition of CYS to mean number of months paid divided by 12.

So, the answer to the question posed by a reader, it depends.