The number of beneficiaries under the govenrment's Social Pension program will likely be trimmed down, after the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) conducted "cleansing" of the list of its program beneficiaries.
DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista bared this during "Laging Handa" network briefing Monday.
"Ngayon po nagkaron kami ng cleansing sa list ng senior citizens, meron po sigurong matatanggal dun or hindi na qualified," he said.
(Currently, we are cleansing the list of senior citizens, maybe there will be recipients who will be removed or who are not qualified.)
He said the funds generated following the exclusion of unqualified beneficiaries will be provided to areas of senior citizens who have yet to receive their entitled social pension, which is provided under Republic Act No. 9994 or the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010”.
Last year, more than 3 million indigent senior citizens received their stipend, amounting to more than P9 billion.
Under Social Pension (SocPen) program, qualified indigent senior citizens 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.
Bautista noted that the agency is coordinating with the lawmakers to increase the budget allocated for SocPen.
"Itong issue na ito ay alam na ng ating legislators kasi binigyan po namin sila ng data at nagbigay ng briefing sa kanila na talagang kailangan dagdagan ang budget sa ating senior citizens," he said.
(This issue has been brought to the attention of our legislators because wealready gave them data and we conducted briefing to stress that the budget of senior citizena should be augmented.)
"Palagi naman po nireremind ang ating legislators, kaya hopefully madagdagan ang budget sa senior citizens."
(We have been reminding our legislators, hopefully the budget for the senior citizens will be increased.)
For 2021, the DSWD is targeting to distribute social pension to around 3, 789,874 indigent senior citizens.