MANILA — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Thursday clarified that indigent seniors are entitled to only PHP500 in monthly social pension benefits and not PHP6,000.
The DSWD made the clarification in the wake of news proliferating on social media that it is providing PHP6,000 monthly social pension to indigent elders.
DSWD Acting Secretary Virginia Orogo said the “Social Pension Program” is the assistance of the government for the older persons pursuant to Republic Act No. 9994, or the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010”.
RA 9994 provides that senior citizens, who are 60 years old and above, shall receive a PHP500 monthly pension, especially if such senior citizen is suffering from an illness and not receiving any pension from the government.
The DSWD is distributing the “cash subsidy” to social pensioners on a quarterly basis or PHP1,500 per quarter or for a total of PHP6,000 a year.
Likewise, Orogo also appealed to the public not to post any incorrect information on social media in order to avoid confusion among netizens.
Data from the DSWD showed that a total of 2,906,079 indigent elders have already received their respective pension for the second quarter this year.