To date, over 30,000 senior citizens have already received the 1K per quarter cash incentive being rolled out by the local government under the Dalipe administration’s social amelioration program, the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) reported Wednesday, September 13.
City Social Welfare and Development Office head Socorro Rojas said the cash incentive has been turned over to 34,979 senior citizen beneficiaries in a series of payout distributions spearheaded by the local government following the program’s official rollout last July.
Some 14,896 senior citizens from Field Office V (Culianan District) and Field Office IV (Tetuan District) are yet to receive their cash incentive. Their payouts will be scheduled soon by the CSWDO in coordination with the City Treasurer’s Office, social workers, and the barangays.
According to Rojas, the first rollout of the cash incentive is based on the master list provided by the Federation of Senior Citizens Affairs of the Philippines (FSCAP).
Rojas further clarified that the 1K cash incentive of the local government is different from the social pension being provided by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
The LGU cash incentive provides 1K per quarter to senior citizens regardless of employment status and social pension or remuneration. The incentive started with the 2nd quarter of 2023.
The DSWD Social Pension, on the other hand, provides P500 a month or P6000 a year to indigent senior citizens. It has a target of 25,875 beneficiaries.
Rojas assured the public that the CSWDO with the City Mayor’s Office and the barangays are working together to thresh out concerns and further streamline the payout process to avoid burdening senior citizen beneficiaries.
Common challenges noted during the payouts are discrepancies in names of beneficiaries, overlap in schedules and confusion over the cash incentive versus social pension payouts, validation of proof of relationship for representatives claiming the incentive on behalf of the senior citizen beneficiary, and validation of residency in cases where senior citizens carry an OSCA ID registered with a different local government unit. “El experiencia diaton will serve as part of our insights, we will look back and evaluate how we can improve our process, to streamline the process,” Rojas said. (Jasmine Mohammadsali)