PAGADIAN CITY, 15 Nov. (PIA) –- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has released P625,320,000 as of October 31 for the social pension program for indigent senior citizens in all regions, including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
As of November 4, 2011, a total of 107,431 senior citizens or 77% of the 138,960 beneficiaries for 2011 are now receiving their P500 monthly stipend from DSWD.
The social pension program is provided under Republic Act No. 9994, also known as the Expanded Senior Citizens Act (ESCA) of 2010.
The law prioritizes indigent senior citizens who are frail, sickly and disabled, without any regular source of income and/or support from any member of the family, and not receiving other pension benefits from government and private institutions.
Priority beneficiaries of the social pension this year are senior citizens aged 77 years old and above. The list of beneficiaries came from the National Household Targeting System for Poverty reduction (NHTS-PR) of the DSWD, which is the database identifying who and where the poor are.
The qualified senior citizens who are not included in the NHST-PR date were also considered as replacement to those non-qualified and delisted senior citizens due to death or transfer of residence.
“We hope that next year (2012) more indigent senior citizens can be provided with the P500 monthly pension by the government with the approval of the 2012 DSWD proposed budget,” Secretary Dinky Soliman said.
The DSWD has a proposed budget of P1.2 Billion for 2012 to benefit some 185,914 indigent senior citizens, or 46,954 more than this year’s 138,960 beneficiaries. (JPA/DSWD/PIA9/CAL/ZamboSur)