By Jennifer P. Rendon
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said on Friday that it will try to complete its social pension payout for 2019 this February 2020.
Judith Tanate-Barredo, DSWD-6 Social Welfare Officer III and social person on Senior Citizen, explained their goal is to provide the much-awaited social pension grant this month, with only a week to go.
“That’s the target. We’re trying to finish the payout this month. If not, we would do our best to release it by next month,” she said.
A few days ago, DSWD-6 again issued a statement after senior citizens, who have not received their social pension, expressed apprehensions that their benefits would no longer be given to them.
But the DSWD-6 clarified that the payout is continuously being done all over Western Visayas.
In fact, Barredo said she was in Capiz province on Friday to do the payout.
The reasons for the delay were the re-evaluation of the list of pensioners which was completed in June 2019; and the downloading of qualified beneficiaries from Manila.
“Ang pagpanaog diri sa aton sang listahan sang mga kwalipikado halin sa Manila amat-amat. Amo ni ang rason kon ngaa amat-amat man ang pagbayad sa mga katigulangan,” she said.
As of Wednesday, the DSWD made a payout to 65 percent of its beneficiaries all over the region.
Barredo said concerned individuals could coordinate with their local government unit for the payout schedule.
She clarified, though, that the DSWD is directly in charge of giving the social pension.
The fund doesn’t pass through the LGU, Barredo added.
“That’s why, I hope people would stop blaming their local Social Welfare and Development officer and their elective officials for the delay,” she said.
In September 2019, the DSWD received several complaints from the community of “elders” after a good number of them were not on the list to get their monthly stipend of P500.
Blames were thrown as thousands of the 60 years old and above Pinoys did not get their P6,000 yearly stipend.
But even earlier, Barredo explained the delay on the conduct of validation and the process of transition – from transfer of fund to direct payout.
For Western Visayas, the target beneficiaries are 365,908.
But not all were downloaded because of the cleansing done.
It was also explained that the delay in the revalidation was because the information provided by the beneficiaries or their authorized representatives were encoded and transmitted to DSWS Central Office in Quezon City to categorize those eligible and non-eligible for the program, thru a computerized system.
Further, the list of qualified social pensioners is being downloaded to the field office and in batches gradually.
That was used as basis why some municipalities and cities have received the social pension ahead than the others.
As such, the downloading of the list of qualified social pensioners did and will not happen at one time only.
The delay in the approval of General Appropriations Act (GAA) also contributed in the delayed payout.
Relatedly, the DSWD-6 also pointed out that not all senior citizens are eligible to receive the social pension provided under Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.
Barredo said there’s a criteria provided for the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens (SPISC) program.
These include seniors who are frail, sickly or with disability; those without any pension from other government agencies; those without a permanent source of income or source of financial assistance/compensation to support their basic needs; and those with no regular support from family or relatives for his/her basic needs.
Barredo said the agency won’t deviate with its objective in improving the social condition of senior citizens.
