DSWD to expand cash dole

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The department of has expanded its conditional cash transfer program, called the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), into high school education to cover students from poor families aged 15 to 18 years.

This will result in 10 million new student-beneficiaries nationwide this year alone, said Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman.

She said the expansion into high school of the 4Ps, which began early this year, was necessary to increase the future employability of the beneficiaries.

Soliman explained that the 4Ps is part of the “convergence strategy” that the DSWD is implementing which, she claimed, has significantly reduced  poverty incidence in the country in the first half of 2013 based on the 2013 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in July 2013.

She said the percentage of Filipinos considered poor based on their average income, already dropped to 24.9 percent in the first semester of 2013, from 27.9 percent in the same period in 2012.—Cynthia D. Balana