DSWD STARTS PAYOUT OF P2,400 CASH GRANT TO POOR SENIOR CITIZENS

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) launched the distribution of unconditional cash transfer program to indigent senior citizens as part of the social mitigating measures to ease the inflationary impact of the tax reform law on poor households.

In its pilot payout, the DSWD distributed cash grants amounting to P2,400 to some 733 beneficiaries of the department's Social Pension Program for Indigent Senior Citizens (SPISC) in San Fernando, Pampanga.

“For our pilot payout activity, we will be providing the unconditional cash transfer grant of our Social Pension beneficiaries in San Fernando City. In Region III, a total of 95,304 SPISC beneficiaries will be receiving their UCT subsidy in the coming weeks,” DSWD Acting Secretary Virginia Orogo said in a statement.

Orogo said DSWD field offices in other regions are already preparing the payroll documents for the provision of the subsidy to social pension beneficiaries in their respective regions.

“The payout activity in the regions will be scheduled as soon as we finish the payroll generation of our beneficiaries and after the Land Bank of the Philippines approves our payroll submissions,” Orogo said.

Overall, some 3 million senior citizens are expected to receive their grants.

The unconditional cash transfer program is the tax subsidy provided under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law to cushion the adverse economic impact of the law for three years on the poor, starting 2018.

For this year, beneficiaries will receive P200 per month or P2,400 for one year. In 2019 and 2020, the subsidy will increase to P300 or P3,600 a year.

Aside from the 3 million social pensioners, beneficiaries also include the 4.4 million household-beneficiaries of the DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and the 2.6 million poor households listed under the DSWD National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction or "Listahanan."

SPISC is the government’s assistance for poor senior citizens amounting to P500 per month to help augment their daily subsistence, including their medical needs.

Beneficiaries include indigent senior citizens who are frail, sickly or with a disability; with no regular income or support from family and relatives; and without pension from private or government institutions.

The DSWD has earlier started providing the unconditional cash grant to its 4Ps beneficiaries.

As of June 14, a total of 4,164,036 4Ps beneficiary accounts have been given with the grants.

“We are currently validating the 2.7 million poor households from the 'Listahanan' database to get the 2.6 million target beneficiaries for unconditional cash transfer. As of June 12, a total of 2,564,561 households or 93.5 percent of the total have been validated, while 2,466,777 million or 89 percent have been encoded,” Orogo said.

“We are targeting to finish the registration by July and to conduct the unconditional cash transfer payout for the 'Listahanan' households in August and September,” she said. # ADAPTED/MDM, GMA News