Universality of P19-B social pension for senior citizens pushed

A lawmaker pushed on Tuesday for the universality of the Department of Social Welfare and Development's P19.2-billion social pension for indigent senior citizens in 2018.

Senator Risa Hontiveros said the most senior of the senior citizens and those not covered by any pension package from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines Savings and Loan Association Inc. (AFPSLAI) be included in the recipients of the pension.

"While the most ideal is to cover all senior citizens, but given the limitations of the proposed 2018 budget, in the meantime, it is fiscally prudent for the government to target the universality of social pension to cover the more senior among the senior citizens, who we believe are the most ‘in-need’. This even as we work to craft a budget in the succeeding years that will cover the entirety of all senior citizens,” Hontiveros said at the Senate hearing of the proposed 2018 budget of the DSWD.

"Alagaan natin ang ating mga senior citizens, lalo na ang pinaka-senior sa kanila," she added.

Citing DSWD data, Hontiveros said 842,471 senior citizens beneficiaries remain waitlisted despite the 2,809,542 target for validated senior citizens beneficiaries in the 2017 DSWD budget.

The P19.2 billion budget proposal for DSWD's social pension intends to cover waitlisted senior citizens and 600,000 of 3,652,013 validated indigent senior citizens who have yet to receive their pensions.

“It is incumbent upon the government to cover the entire segment of senior citizens, indigent and without existing insurance coverage, for them to be able to avail of the government’s social pension package by increasing the allocation for the program,” Hontiveros said.

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) census data from 2010 project that 8.7 million Filipinos will be aged 60 up to 80 by 2018. —Rie Takumi/KG, GMA News