Indigent senior citizens, crisis-hit families to get P2.6 B

The Department of Budget and Management has released P2.6 billion to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for its social protection programs, including pension for indigent senior citizens.

The DSWD said P1.2 billion will be used to implement the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens (SPISC) program, P1.1 billion for the Protective Services for Individuals and Families in Difficult Circumstances program and P218 million for supplementary feeding.

Senior citizens get a monthly stipend of P500 for their daily subsistence and medical needs under the SPISC. Beneficiaries are identified through the National Household Targeting Survey for Poverty Reduction or the Listahanan survey.

Senior citizens who are frail, sickly or with disability, without regular income or support from family and relatives and those not receiving pension from the Social Security Service or Government Service Insurance System are target beneficiaries.

A total of 768,082 indigent senior citizens were given pension as of April 30.

The DSWD said it aims to cover one million beneficiaries this year from 768,082 last year.

Meanwhile, the DSWD provides food aside from regular meals to children enrolled in day care centers. The program targets over two million children this year.

The agency also provides counseling as well as financial, medical, transportation, food, educational and burial assistance, among others to individuals and families in crisis situations. These are people whose normal functioning has been hampered by poor health, natural and man-made calamities and other emergencies.

The DSWD spent P1.8 billion to assist 540,384 individuals last year. A total of 167,420 persons have benefited from the program since January.