To help cushion the impact of high inflation, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will increase the monthly stipend of indigent senior citizens from P500 to P1,000 beginning this February as part of its ongoing social pension program.
DSWD released the statement Monday, Jan. 22, through its spokesperson Assistant Secretary for Strategic Communications Romel Lopez. “We expect that the distribution of the social pension for the first semester with its increased amount will commence this February 2024,” he said.
Some 4,085,066 indigent senior citizens stand to benefit from this program, according to the agency.
Lopez said the funds for this program are already included in the DSWD budget this year per Republic Act 11916 or the Act Increasing the Social Pension of Indigent Senior Citizens, which lapsed into law in July 2022.
The monthly social pension for senior citizens is given to qualified beneficiaries on a semestral basis with a total amount of Php6,000 per payout to augment their daily subsistence and other medical needs.
According to Lopez, the social pension program covers indigent elderly who are frail, sickly, or have disability. They must also have no permanent source of income and receive no regular financial support from their family or relatives.
Also eligible to receive are those who are not receiving pensions from the Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO), Armed Forces and Police Mutual Benefit Association, Inc. (AFPMBAI), or any other private insurance company.