Poor seniors to get pension

DAVAO CITY (PIA) – Around 7,590 poor senior citizens across the region will soon benefit from a social pension program entitling them to a monthly stipend of P500 to augment their daily subsistence and medical needs.

The figure forms part of the 145,166 targeted indigent elderly citizens nationwide who will benefit from the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens program implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) starting January this year.

DSWD Regional Director Porfiria M. Bernardez of the Cordillera Administrative Region said the agency allots P871 million for this programto cater to the national target which, she said, is only 14 percent of the country’s 1,043,745 senior citizens aged 60 years old and above.

“Hindi malayo ang patutunguhan ng P500 (P500 can’t go far), but this can help our poor elderly persons,” Bernardez said.

She said the payout will be released in a quarterly basis starting March this year.

Bernardez was part of a DSWD team making rounds in Mindanao to conduct orientation and workshop on the guidelines of the social pension program given to the Officers of the City/Municipal Social Welfare and Development (C/MSWDO) and the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA).

Republic Act No. 9994 or the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010” provides for additional benefits and privileges for senior citizens such as the social pension that gives P500 monthly stipend for the indigent elderly persons, Bernardez said.

She said that through DSWD National Household Targetting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), the agency has enlisted indigent senior citizens aging 77 years old and above who are eligible to become social pensioners.

According to Bernardez, qualified social pensioners are those who are “frail, sick or with disability, and without pension or permanent source of income or regular support from relatives to meet their basic
needs.”

She said not entitled for the pension are those “receiving pension from GSIS, SSS or AFPMBAI and other private insurance company and with permanent source of income, or regular support from relatives.”

The DSWD would still have to validate before end of this month the identified potential social pensioners at the city and municipal level before the agency could fully implement the program. –Manila Bulletin