BONTOC, Mountain Province – Due to the increasing number of queries regarding the qualifications for the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens (SPISC) Program, the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO) relayed that only Indigent Senior Citizens are qualified to receive the social pension.
During the Municipal Peace and Order Council (MPOC) meeting on April 17, 2024, in Barangay Talubin, Bontoc, Mountain Province, municipal elected officials and Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officer Aracelli Shane Bayanos solicited the support of the barangay officials and other members of the council to help in the information dissemination of the eligibility criteria in the implementation of the SPISC Program.
Bayanos explained that per Memorandum Circular No. 04, S. 2019 released by the DSWD, 60 years old and above senior citizens qualified to receive social pension are those who are frail, sickly or with a disability; without any pension from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS), PVAO, Armed Forces and Mutual Benefit Association Incorporated, or any other private insurance company; without a permanent source of income; and no regular support from family or relatives for his/ her basic needs.
The SPISC program is implemented by the DSWD in coordination with the MSWDO together with the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA).
She added that senior citizens who are beneficiaries of the social pension program of the DSWD are now entitled to receive a P1,000 monthly stipend which took effect in February 2024. Republic Act No. 11916, which lapsed into law in July 2022, provides for a 100 per cent increase in the monthly pension of indigent senior citizens from P500 to P1,000 to further help indigent seniors cushion the impact of high inflation.
The monthly social pension for seniors is given to the qualified beneficiaries on a semestral basis with a total amount of P6,000 per payout to augment their daily subsistence and other medical needs.
Also, Bayanos gave an update on other programs of the MSWDO which is being implemented in collaboration with partner agencies and stakeholders. She announced that per Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Advisory No. 4, S. 2024, all classes for Early Learning Programs for the School (SY) 2023-2024 are to end no later than May 24, 2024. The end of the SY Program such as Moving Up Ceremony is recommended to be conducted from June 3-7, 2024. By Alpine L. Killa-Malwagay