Almost half a million more seniors will start getting a P6,000 yearly pension from the government effective this year, after Congress increased by P3 billion the budget for social pension for indigent 60-year-olds and above.

So that qualified beneficiaries will start getting their checks, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto is urging the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to cut the red tape and speed up all the required paper work.

Recto said the budget for the government’s social pension program for indigent senior citizens jumped to P8.7 billion this year from P5.7 billion last year, thereby increasing the number of recipients from 939,609 to 1,382,941.

Recto is now calling for the expeditious enrolment of the 443,332 new beneficiaries, saying that “such disbursement of funds must be exempt from underspending.”

“Maliit lamang na halaga ito pero malaking tulong para sa mga senior citizen natin na walang pagkukunan ng ikabubuhay, kaya sana huwag nang maantala,” he added.

 
The distribution of a P500 monthly pension – or P6,000 yearly – to indigent seniors is made pursuant to Republic Act No. 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.

Recto chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Finance which has oversight on the budget of the DSWD, which runs the program.

Malacañang originally sought P7.5 billion for the program for 2016 but after Recto’s review, and lobbying by seniors’ rights advocacy groups, it emerged that at that funding level at least 200,000 seniors will not be covered.

Upon Recto’s motion, the funding was increased by P1.2 billion to P8.7 billion, the amount authorized in the General Appropriations Act for 2016.

It will be recalled that during the debates for the 2015 budget, Recto also succeeded in increasing the program’s budget by P1 billion, to P5.7 billion, which allowed DSWD to take in almost a million beneficiaries.

Recto said the DSWD must expedite the identification of the new beneficiaries in order to facilitate the release of checks to indigent senior citizens at the soonest time possible.

The pension is distributed every quarter through cash payment by DSWD Field Offices or city or municipal social welfare and development offices.

While the law granting monthly pension to “economically disadvantaged” seniors was passed six years ago, “it is only this year that it will be fully complied with,” Recto said.

Due to limited financial resources, only 80-year-olds and above were enlisted in previous years. The cut-off age was later lowered to 77, until it was brought down to 65 last year.

“By increasing the budget for this program, we are embracing the idea that all indigent seniors 60 years old and above must be covered by the proposed allocation. The policy is No Senior Left Behind,” Recto said.

Qualified to receive the P500 monthly stipend under the law are senior citizens who are frail, sickly, or have disabilities; are not receiving pension from Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), or Veterans Pension; and do not have a permanent source of income or regular support from relatives.