Senate OKs bill hiking social pension for indigent seniors

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate on Monday approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to increase the monthly social pension for indigent senior citizens to P1,000.

Voting 18-0-0, senators approved Senate Bill No. 2506.

If the bill is passed into law, indigent senior citizens will be entitled to not less than P1,000 monthly social pension.

In seeking the bill’s plenary approval, Villanueva pointed out that the current P500 monthly pension allowance for indigent senior citizens is “not enough” to sustain their daily needs and other medical needs.

The measure also provides options other than cash payout for the pension, the transaction fee of which will not be charged to the beneficiary, Senator Joel Villanueva, chairman of the Senate subcommittee under the Committee on Social Justice, Welfare, and Rural Development, earlier said.

READ: Bill increasing pension allowance of seniors reaches Senate plenary

The bill also transfers the distribution of the pension allowance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development to the National Commission of Senior Citizens.

The counterpart measure in the House of Representatives was approved on final reading in August last year.

READ: House OKs bill increasing indigent seniors’ social pension to P1K monthly

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