265 thousand indigent elderlies get social pension

CEBU, Philippines — Over 265,000 indigent senior citizens in Central Visayas have received their cash grants from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-7).

The department has so far disbursed a total of P813,837,000 in cash aid under its social pension program for 265,055 beneficiaries.

The distribution of cash grants is nearing completion at 95.76 percent as of June 11, said DSWD-7 Regional Director Rebecca Geamala.

She said the remaining 11,233 beneficiaries are advised to go to their respective local government units (LGUs) to claim their pension.

Geamala said those with mobility impairments may issue an authorization to their family members to claim the pension from their local social welfare and development officers.

The social pension program has 276,278 beneficiaries in the region.

Social pensions are given to senior citizens who are not receiving any pensions from both private and public institutions and are not receiving support from their relatives.

Each senior gets a monthly pension of P500 or P6,000 per annum to augment their daily subsistence and other medical needs.

DSWD is distributing the pension on a semestral basis at P3,000 per semester. The pension payout before was done quarterly by DSWD personnel.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic, DSWD entered into an agreement with LGUs to distribute the social pension to indigent senior citizens listed by the former.

“DSWD special disbursing officers would have a hard time going to the field and conduct payout due to travel restrictions and other mobility issues,” said Geamala.

Moreover, Geamala has urged LGUs that are still not done with the social pension payouts to hasten the distribution and liquidation as not to delay the second tranche of cash grants.  KQD (FREEMAN)