The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) released P20.6 million as social pension for 13,748 qualified senior citizens of Region 1.
DSWD Region 1 Director Marcelo Nicomedes Castillo said the financial bonanza covered the whole second quarter of the year at P500 per month or P1,500 per beneficiary senior citizen.
Castillo said that the agency’s employees were assisted by Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officers from the 121 local government units during the release of the social pensions that started during the first week of June.
According to Castillo, the assistance from the government will address the health and basic needs of the senior citizens.
He informed that automatic replacement during pay-out is no longer accepted.
Rather, the list of waiting eligible senior citizens is to be assessed and verified by the Head and Monitoring Team of the Office of Senior Citizens Association prior to the submission of the list to the regional office for approval and funding.
The number of social pensioners accommodated per municipality is based on the poverty incidence and National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).
He noted that the Social Pension Program seeks to provide a monthly stipend of P500 to poor senior citizens aged at least 77 with no regular support or pension received from other sources.