Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman: Investment in the future. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman has defended the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, saying it was an investment in children’s future and its effects may not be immediately felt.
In a statement, Soliman said the program was not meant to be a poverty-reduction scheme that would be immediately felt by the poor.
“It is an investment in human capital for the children of the poor to have a fighting chance to be part of inclusive growth,” she said.
Soliman stressed that the program, while contributing to poverty reduction, was not the lone solution.
“We are also providing entrepreneurial support to beneficiaries through capital assistance and capability building as an exit strategy to prepare them to start their own sources of livelihood after the program,” she said.
P64B budget
Soliman issued the statement a day after the hearing on the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) proposed budget for 2015 by the Senate committee on finance.
The DSWD is proposing a P64.7-billion budget for the CCT program in 2015 to meet its target of benefiting 5.3 million households. Currently there are 4,332,411 households enrolled.
The CCT, or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, gives monthly cash grants to qualified indigent families—with P500 going to the mother and children’s health needs and P300 or P500 per child for their educational needs.
In return, a family must comply with program conditions such as sending their children to school, taking them to health centers for checkups, and attending family development sessions.
Employment
The goal is for the children to finish high school and give them better chances at employment, thus breaking the cycle of poverty in their families.
“The investment in the children’s education would only be fully felt 10 years from the program start, when the children shall have graduated and been gainfully employed,” Soliman said.
She said the provision for health needs would ensure the children would be healthy and able to finish their studies.
Meanwhile, Soliman said the 11-percent increase in the overhead costs of the program would go to the salaries of contractual employees who would be conducting the family development sessions. Some P8.5 billion is being set aside for the salaries of contractual workers.
Soliman said that after 2016, the CCT budget would taper off as some 25,000 beneficiaries are expected to exit the program next year.