A total of 138,960 indigent senior citizens throughout the country get their monthly social pension, as the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released P435.5 million for the Social Pension fund of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Budget and Management Secretary Florencio B. Abad said the release will cover funding requirements for the monthly social pension of P500 for covered indigent senior citizens.
“This program is in line with the government’s obligation to protect the most vulnerable sectors of society. Under the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, indigent senior citizens are eligible to receive social pension to help them with their basic needs, such as food and medicine,” he said.
“For 2011, the national government has allocated P871 million for the program that benefits 138,960 indigent senior citizens. Region 5 has the most number of recipients with 13,348, followed by Region 6 with 12,981 and Region 8 with 11,532,” he said.
He said the fund release will cover the seniors’ benefits for the first semester of 2011, and another P435.5 million will be released by DBM on July this year to cover for the second half of the year. Likewise, DBM has released an additional P11.185 million to DSWD for its assistance program for older person and persons with disabilities.
| REGION | NO. OF SOCIAL PENSIONERS | TOTAL |
| I | 10,986 | P65,916,000 |
| II | 3,074 | 18,444,000 |
| III | 8,460 | 50,760,000 |
| IV-A | 6,251 | 37,506.000 |
| IV-B | 6,054 | 36,324,000 |
| V | 13,348 | 80,088,000 |
| VI | 12,981 | 77,886,000 |
| VII | 11,402 | 68,412,000 |
| VIII | 11,532 | 69,192,000 |
| IX | 11,435 | 68,610,000 |
| X | 9,354 | 56,124,000 |
| XI | 7,347 | 44,082,000 |
| XII | 5,064 | 30,384,000 |
| NCR | 2,657 | 15,942,000 |
| CAR | 3,566 | 21,396,000 |
| CARAGA | 9,375 | 56,250,000 |
| ARMM | 6,074 | 36,444,000 |
| Administrative Cost | 37,240,000 | |
| Total for Social Pension | 138,960 | P871,000,000 |
Abad also said DSWD has proposed the expansion of the social pension program to reach more than a million indigent senior citizens throughout the country by 2012.
By the law’s definition, the target beneficiaries of the program are indigent senior citizens who are frail, sick, disabled, not receiving any pension, without permanent source of income, or regular support from families or relatives.
0 Comments
Please note: Your comment may or may not appear immediately. Please do not submit it twice! Certain words may trigger a spam filtering delay. Please refrain from profanity; inappropriate comments may be deleted by the author's sole discretion.