The law specifies that seniors qualified to receive the P500 monthly pension under the Social Pension Program of the Department are those who are frail, sickly or with a disability; without any pension from other government agencies; and without a permanent source of income or source of financial assistance/compensation to support their basic needs.
OIC Leyco explained that inasmuch as DSWD would want to include all senior citizens, the budget for the Social Pension Program is limited.
He said that after eight years of implementation, many seniors are still asking why they are not included in the program.
Last year, DSWD targeted some 2,809,542 indigent senior citizens for the Social Pension Program with a budget of P17,107,527,000.
For 2018, a total of three million indigent older persons are set to receive the monthly social pension with a total fund allocation of P19,282,542,000.
The OIC further explained that social workers of the local government units (LGUs) are tasked to conduct a validation/assessment to determine the qualified indigent senior citizens from the list submitted by the Senior Citizens Affairs Office (OSCA). The validated list will then be submitted to the DSWD for final assessment.
On issues regarding anomalies in the selection of beneficiaries, OIC Leyco said, "Although issues of exclusion and inclusion may happen somewhere, the final list should still be validated by DSWD. Furthermore, the Department's regional offices are constantly monitoring the implementation of the program."
OIC Leyco also appealed to the public to help DSWD ensure that only the rightful beneficiaries should receive the pension.
"If you hear of or witness any anomaly, report this immediately to any DSWD regional office or even inform us through our social media accounts. Rest assured that we do not tolerate any corrupt practice in our program/project implementation," he said.
UCT for seniors
OIC Leyco also announced that aside from the monthly pension of P500, the three million social pensioners for this year will receive an additional P200 monthly subsidy under the Unconditional Cash Grant provided for by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law. The cash grant will be distributed to them in a lump sum of P2,400 within the month of March 2018.
OIC Leyco also said that in 2019 and 2020, the UCT subsidy will be increased to P300 per month. [DSWD]
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