DSWD hopes to cover ‘younger’ indigent elders

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) hopes to cover “younger” indigent senior citizens in the country in their Social Pension Program where they currently give a P500 monthly pension to elderly folks aged 77 years old and above.

DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman said that under the proposed budget for their Social Pension Program (SPP) for 2015 of P4,762,628,000, they hope to lower the coverage age from 77 to 67 years old.

“For 2014, we can only cover senior citizens (from) 77 years old. For 2015, we are hoping to get an increase, we project that we can cover senior citizens aged 67 years old from the (proposed budget) P4.7 billion,” Soliman told reporters in a press briefing in Quezon City yesterday morning.

Senior citizens’ groups earlier lamented the high coverage age set by the DSWD for eligibility to get the P500 monthly pension given under their SPP.

The groups also bewailed the P500 monthly social pension amount as too small, especially with the constantly rising price of goods due to inflation.

The DSWD is pursuing their SPP in compliance of the Republic Act 9994, or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, which mandates that indigent senior citizens should be issued a monthly stipend of P500 to augment their daily subsistence and other medical needs.

The SPP gives priority to senior citizens who are frail, sickly and those with disability; those who are without pension from the Government Service Insurance System, Social Security System and AFP Military Benefits and Assurance, Inc.; and those who have no permanent source of income or support from their relatives.

The DSWD’s approved allocation in their budget for the SPP this year is P2.9 billion, from which they target to cover 455,530 senior citizens.