Lawmaker seeks raise in elderly pension
CAGAYAN de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez is seeking a raise in the social pension for millions of indigent senior citizens.
In House Bill 7266, Rodriguez proposes to double the senior citizens’ pension from P500 to P1,000 as an amendment to Republic Act 9994 or the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.”
Under the law enacted in 2010, the social pension aims to “to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of senior citizens.”
But Rodriguez said “P500 a month is not much. It’s not even enough for basic maintenance medicines.” He added that senior citizens especially need the increase amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The bill also seeks to remove restrictions on beneficiaries of the social pension. Under the law, a senior citizen can qualify for the stipend if he is “frail, sickly or with disability, and without pension or permanent source of income, compensation or financial assistance from his/her relatives to support his/her basic needs, as determined by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.”
Rodriguez said only 29 percent of the 7.5 million to 8 million senior Filipino citizens receive the allowance “because the law is very restrictive.”
“Because of these restrictions, millions of senior citizens are being deprived of the social pension they are entitled to,” he said.
“The objective of the law is to recognize the rights of senior citizens to take their proper place in society and make it a concern of the family, community and government, and to give full support to the improvement of the total well-being of the elderly and their full participation in society,” he added.
The only exemption in the proposed bill would be that the recipient should not be receiving pension from any public or private pension of more than P4,000 a month. This is an initial amount which can be gradually increased to be able to give to more seniors in the future, Rodriguez said.
The lawmaker has urged the Social Security System (SSS) to release the delayed second tranche of pension increase for private sector retirees. The 17th Congress previously approved a P2,000 adjustment in SSS pension per month with the first tranche of P1,000 was set to be paid starting January 2017 and the second half scheduled to be given from January 2019.