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MANILA, Philippines — More than 3.7 million indigent senior citizens received a P1,000 monthly pension from January to June 2024, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) announced on Wednesday.
DSWD Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Irene Dumlao said the agency disbursed P21.8 billion for the first half of 2024 to 3,723,323 indigent senior citizens nationwide. The agency distributes a pension of P6,000 on a semestral basis or P1,000 monthly to eligible beneficiaries.
Republic Act No. 11916, or the Act Increasing the Social Pension of Senior Citizens, mandated their pension increase from P500 to P1,000.
READ: Social pension budget for indigent senior citizens’ doubled for 2024
The Department of Budget and Management released P49.807 billion for the increased monthly allowance of indigent senior citizens, double the amount for the program from last year’s appropriation of P25.30 billion.
Eligible beneficiaries must be 60 years old and older, frail and sickly, without a source of regular income or support from family, and receive no pensions from the Government Service Insurance System, the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, the Social Security System, or private companies.
Based on the 2020 census of the Philippine Statistics Authority, as many as 9.22 million senior citizens live in the country. Four million elders have no government pensions, regular income sources, or family support.
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