P14 million released for the 2011 social pension of NCR’s indigent senior citizens

QUEZON CITY, January 19 (PIA) - - The Department of Social Welfare and Development in the National Capital Region (DSWD-NCR) has disbursed a total amount of P14,032,500 for the 2011 social pension of some 2,657 indigent senior citizens in Metro Manila.

DSWD-NCR Regional Director Ma. Alicia S. Bonoan said, “The 2,657 approved beneficiaries for the social pension program were derived from the DSWD National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) data."

She explained that 938 of the 2,657 approved beneficiaries in NCR were walk-in applicants at different local government units’ Office of Seniors Citizens Affairs and City Social Welfare and Development who replaced the unlocated and delisted elderly from the NHTS-PR database.

Based on the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) data of DSWD, a total of 145,166 indigent senior citizens nationwide whose ages are between 77 years old and above have been prioritized for 2011 implementation with a budget appropriation of P870 billion.

Bonoan added that DSWD plans to expand the coverage of the government’s Social Pension Program to more indigent senior citizens nationwide this year and also to also cover the elderly, whose ages are lower than the current minimum age requirement which is 77 years old.

The payment of social pensions for indigent senior citizens amounting to P500 is provided for under Republic Act No. 9994, also known as the Expanded Senior Citizens Act (ESCA) of 2010. The Act provides a monthly assistance or subsidy of P500, given on a quarterly basis to pre-identified indigent senior citizens beneficiaries 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. (LFB/RJB/DSWD-NCR/PIA-NCR)

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