DSWD to validate poor households for unconditional cash transfers
THE DEPARTMENT of Social Welfare and Development in the Cordillera Administrative Region is set to validate 32,010 households in the region who are potential beneficiaries of unconditional cash transfers (UCT) under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law.
The number is among the 10 million households across the country that are eyed to benefit from UCT led by the Department of Finance and implemented through the DSWD. The UCT is seen to help cushion the impact of the TRAIN Law on consumption among the poor.
OIC regional director Janet Armas said the validation process ensures that the recipients still reside in their addresses and are still poor as they were during the 2015 assessment.
Armas added the department will closely coordinate with local government units to assist validators in household level verification.
UCT beneficiaries include the existing 4.4 million Pantawid Pamilya (conditional cash transfer) grantees and some 3 million beneficiaries of the Social Pension Program for indigent senior citizens.
Meanwhile, the remaining 2.6 million households, which will be the subject for validation, are from the list of poor under the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) or the Listahanan.
Moreover, DSWD Cordillera will hire around 150 validators to verify status of the 32,010 households in the entire region. The validation process is expected to last for two to three months.
"Our validators will do house to house validation. There should be a qualified respondent for us to continue with the validation process," Armas said.
Qualified respondents include household members who are 15 years old and above. Names of those who were not validated after two callbacks shall be listed in the Non-Validated Household Log (NHL) and will be certified by the barangay.
The UCT will be implemented for three years. For 2018, beneficiaries will receive P200 monthly and will increase to P300 per month by 2019 and 2020.