MANILA, Philippines — Beginning in February, more than four million indigent senior citizens will receive from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) a monthly social pension of P1,000, up from the previous P500, to help “cushion the impact of high inflation.”
Romel Lopez, spokesperson for the DSWD, said on Monday that the funds for Republic Act No. 11916, or the law increasing the social pension for indigent senior citizens, had been included in the agency’s 2024 budget.
RA 11916, which lapsed into law in July 2022, provides a 100 percent increase in the monthly pension of indigent senior citizens from the DSWD.
Qualified beneficiaries are those age 60 and above who are frail, sickly or with disability and those without a permanent source of income or regular support from their families or relatives. They should also not be getting a pension from state or private insurers.