CCT ‘graduates’ to continue receiving cash doleouts – DSWD

MANILA, Philippines - More than 1.5 million household-beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) that have been identified to have improved into “non-poor” families will continue to receive regular conditional cash grants.

Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said yesterday her department would also develop a program that would further ensure the welfare of families now classified as transitioning households.

“These transitioning households remain vulnerable with little or no buffer against economic shocks, and because of this, they will continue to be provided with appropriate social protection programs,” she said.

Earlier, the Department of Social Welfare and Development said more than 1.5 million of the 4.4 million family-beneficiaries of the 4Ps had moved up from the ranks of the country’s poorest and are now among the “non-poor” in the second National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction conducted by DSWD and the Philippine Statistics Authority in 2015.

The DSWD is validating the figure by meeting with the families. The assessment that will be undertaken will seek to design further interventions to sustain the improved status of the new non-poor families.

Taguiwalo said allowing these families to continue to remain in the program is one way of securing the initial gains of the 4Ps.

It also ensures that families will not revert to poverty in case of economic shocks or disasters.  – With Marvin Sy