P500 monthly pension for senior citizens

DSWD provides the cash subsidy to the social pensioners on a quarterly basis or P1,500 per quarter, totaling to P6,000 for one year

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Northern Mindanao belied reports circulated online that an indigent elderly person receives P6,000 and clarified that the pension is only P500 per month.

Under the Social Pension Program, an indigent senior citizen receives a P500 monthly pension.

The Social Pension Program is an assistance to indigent older persons in accordance to the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 or Republic Act 9994.

Under the law, an elderly, 60 years old and above, is qualified to receive the P500 monthly pension if he or she is frail, sickly or with disability; without any pension from other government agencies; and without a permanent source of income or source of financial assistance to support his or her basic daily subsistence expenses and basic medical needs.

The Department provides the cash subsidy to the social pensioners on a quarterly basis or P1,500 per quarter, totaling to P6,000 for one year.

DSWD Secretary Virginia Orogo appealed to the public not to share wrong information to avoid creating unnecessary confusion among the public.

She added that DSWD is open to answer queries if there is any information which concerned bodies need to know about the different programs and services of the Department.

“Using inaccurate data is not helpful to the public. Much as we appreciate efforts to help DSWD in information dissemination, it would be best that factchecking to be done first with reliable sources before sharing,” she said.

To date, the 2,906,079 indigent elder persons in the country have received their pension as of the second quarter of this year.

Northern Mindanao has 186,760 indigent senior citizens and DSWD-10 has allocated over P1 billion to serve and provide social pension.

The P1 billion is for the 34,378 senior citizens in Bukidnon, 6,339 seniors in Camiguin, 46,026 in Lanao del Norte, 46,245 in Misamis Oriental, and 53,772 senior citizens in Misamis Occidental.