More than three million indigent senior citizens have received their social pension, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has reported.
DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista said they distributed more than P9 billion worth of social pension to indigent elderly people last year to help them augment their daily subsistence and medical needs.
"As of December, more than three million indigent senior citizens have received their social pension amounting to more than P9 billion,” he said.
He said the Social Pension (SocPen) is the provision of a P500 monthly cash subsidy to eligible indigent seniors which is given on a semestral basis.
Republic Act No. 9994, the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010,” provides that seniors qualified to receive social pension are those who are frail, sickly, or with 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.
The DSWD said senior citizens who are not included in the list but are eligible can still appeal to the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA), their local governments, and the nearest Field Office, which has jurisdiction over their areas for assessment.
Under SocPen, which is provided for under RA 9994, qualified indigent senior citizens will receive a monthly stipend of P500 to help augment their daily subsistence and other medical needs.
The social pension is distributed on a semestral basis at P3,000 per semester or P500 per month for six months.
For 2021, the DSWD is targeting to distribute social pension to around 3, 789,874 indigent senior citizens.