INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has proposed an incentive of P400 for pregnant or lactating women and mothers with children up to 2 years old who are enrolled in its main poverty alleviation scheme, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
Under the proposal, the additional amount would be on top of existing health-related grants received by these women as members of 4Ps-enrolled households, the agency said on Thursday.
READ: P400 subsidy for pregnant women proposed
The extra P400 was recommended after President Marcos on Tuesday approved the DSWD proposal to increase cash grants for expecting and lactating mothers to help them with their prenatal and postnatal needs for 1,000 days. The period covers the nine-month pregnancy and the first two years of the child.
‘Incentive by nature’
Gemma Gabuya, a DSWD director and national program manager of 4Ps, said the amount was based on a study made by the government think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) using consumer price index.
“We also have to clarify that this is just on top of the existing health grants. We just want to give priority to those mothers,” Gabuya said when asked at a press briefing whether P400 a month may be considered enough for the target beneficiaries.
READ: 4Ps beneficiaries urged to tap Meralco’s discount program
She said the cash grants under the 4Ps programs are “incentive by nature,” and therefore not designed to be a family’s only source of finances.
The DSWD had already included the additional grant in its proposed budget for 2025. “So, we really need the support of DBM (Department of Budget and Management) on this,” Gabuya said.
The DSWD and the National Economic and Development Authority have yet to determine the total funding required and other details regarding the implementation of the new 4Ps feature, she added.
Qualifications
For the target beneficiaries to qualify, they should be able to complete their monthly medical checkup and have their babies delivered at accredited health centers.
The additional P400 monthly incentive will be in addition to the P750 also given monthly to a member of a registered 4Ps household.
In such a household, children aged 2 to 14 years old are required to attend a growth development and monitoring program. The children and their guardians must also undergo monthly family development sessions.
Education grants
The DSWD is also looking at raising the monthly grants for 4Ps households with children studying at pre-college levels. At present, the scheme gives P300 per child at the elementary level, P500 each for those in junior high school, and P700 each for those in senior high.
“They will be included in the (set of) increases. PIDS has studied all the proposed grants of DSWD. So there will be little increase,” Gabuya said.
She, however, acknowledged that some 700,000 households had yet to receive their education grants this year, while another 49,000 families had yet to receive their health incentives.
“We want to be able to pay the beneficiaries. We’ve been waiting for DBM’s response regarding this,” Gabuya said.
There are currently around 4.4 million families enrolled in 4Ps nationwide, according to the latest DSWD data.
But the agency recently said about 1.2 million of them had already attained “self-sufficiency” and that it was fast-tracking their removal from the program.