The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Wednesday, June 29, said it has started the distribution of P500 monthly subsidy per family to help the poor cushion the impact of higher prices of fuel and basic goods.
Under the Targeted Cash Transfer (TCT) Program, around 1.2 million household-beneficiaries who have existing cash cards have received the first tranche of cash aid, amounting to P1,000, or two-months’ worth of subsidies.
Signed by the DSWD, Department of Finance, Department of Budget and Management, and the National Economic and Development Authority, the Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 1, series of 2022, provides the guidelines for the implementation of the TCT program.
Under the guidelines, the DSWD will provide cash grants amounting to P3,000, or P500 per month for six months, to an approximate 12.4 million household-beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries are composed of four million households under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps); six million non-4Ps households and individuals who were previously beneficiaries of the Unconditional Cash Transfer Program of 2018 to 2020 under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law, which include beneficiaries of the Social Pension Program; and 2.4 million households in the database of Listahanan that fall within the first to fifth income decile, or other poverty data sources of the DSWD.
As stated in the implementing guidelines, the DSWD is providing the list of beneficiaries to the Land Bank of the Philippines, which is distributing the cash subsidy through its cash cards and through other banks, electronic money issuers, or remittance centers.
The TCT program, which was announced by President Duterte in March 2022, aims to cushion the impact of the elevated costs of fuel and other commodities.
The intended beneficiaries of the program are the bottom 50 percent of Filipino households around the country.