DSWD releases P625M for social pension

Some P625.32 million has been released for the social pension program for indigent senior citizens nationwide, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said. In a news release, the DSWD said the social pension funds include those for beneficiaries in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). As of November 4, the DSWD said 107,431 senior citizens — 77 percent of the 138,960 beneficiaries for 2011 — are now receiving their P500 monthly social pension from the DSWD. The social pension program is provided under Republic Act No. 9994, the Expanded Senior Citizens Act (ESCA) of 2010. The pension is for indigent senior citizens who are frail, sickly and disabled, without any regular source of income and/or support from any member of the family, and not receiving other pension benefits from government and private agencies. For 2011, the priority beneficiaries are senior citizens aged 77 years old and above. The DSWD has proposed a budget of P1.2 billion for 2012 to benefit some 185,914 indigent senior citizens, or 46,954 more than this year’s 138,960 beneficiaries. “We hope that (in 2012) more indigent senior citizens can be provided with the P500 monthly pension by the government with the approval of the 2012 DSWD proposed budget," DSWD secretary Corazon Soliman said. - VVP, GMA News