Govt releases P435M for senior citizens

INDIGENT senior citizens in the country are set to enjoy their monthly social pension after the government released P435.5 million to them through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), it was learned
on Friday.

Budget and Management Secretary Florencio Abad also on Friday said that his department has released the amount as allowance for some 138, 960 poor senior citizens.

“This [P435.5 million] will be distributed to indigent senior citizens . . . and each of them is entitled to P500 a month,” Abad added.

According to the Budget chief, the program “is in line with the government’s obligation to protect the most vulnerable sectors of society.”

“Under the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, indigent senior citizens are eligible to receive social pension to help them with their basic needs, such as food and medicine,” he said.

By the law’s definition, the target beneficiaries of the program are “indigent senior citizens who are frail, sick, disabled, not receiving any pension, without permanent source of income, or regular support from families or relatives.”

Abad said that the fund release would cover the seniors’ benefits for the first semester of the year, and another P435.5 million would be released by his department in July to cover for the second half of the
year.

The Budget department also released an additional P11.185 million to the DSWD for its assistance program for older people and persons with disabilities.

“For 2011, the national government has allocated P871 million for the program that benefits 138,960 indigent senior citizens,” the Budget secretary said.

“Region 5 has the most number of recipients with 13,348, followed by Region 6 with 12,981 and Region 8 with 11,532,” he added.

Abad said that the Social Welfare department has proposed the expansion of the social pension program to reach more than a million indigent senior citizens throughout the country by 2012. -Katrina Mennen A. Valdez, Reporter, Manila Times