TABUK CITY, Kalinga – According to the Social Welfare and Development Office (SWAD)-Kalinga, social pension is only for indigent senior citizens without a regular source of income.
In her guesting for the ‘Matagoan Weekly,’ April Soliaban, Project Development Officer of the Social Pension program explains that the program does not include those elderlies receiving pension from the government, or those with permanent jobs regardless of monthly salary or honorarium.
This pay-out aims to augment the basic needs of senior citizens, like food and medicines, especially for those with disability, or are bedridden. The program beneficiaries, she added, receive a monthly stipend of P500.00 which is released semi-annually.
Soliaban that one of the perennial problems encountered during pay-out is the inconsistency on basic records of senior citizens which the SWAD Office tried to address by updating the records of beneficiaries with help from the Office of Serion Citizens Affairs (OSCA).
Another problem is double entry where the pensioner is listed as beneficiary on two different areas. Soliaban emphasized that the same will be corrected to avoid duplication of funds granted.
In the province of Kalinga, there are 15,100 social pensioners sponsored by the Cordillera office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and of this number, 4,791 are from this city.
Soliaban lauded the city government through the administration of City Mayor Darwin Estrañero for allocating funds to accommodate additional senior citizens to receive the assistance. By Darwin S. Serion
