40% of Filipino elderly lacking pension —ILO

Almost half of the elderly population in the Philippines is left without income security, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).

“ILO’s new report shows many countries, regionally and across the world, are prioritizing their social protection systems. We think this is a good time for Philippines to follow the same path and extend protection to its elderly through the launch of a universal pension," Khalid Hassan, director of ILO Manila Country Office, said.

In its World Social Protection report 2017-2019, ILO estimated that some 40 percent of 3.2 million of the 8 million Filipino senior citizens do not have access to pension. The report was citing data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

"Despite progress in recent years, Philippines’s social protection system retains serious gaps. For example, the majority of the elderly citizens of the country do not have income security, i.e. do not have a pension, despite a significant increase in allocation," it said.

"This is in contrast to countries like China, Thailand, Mongolia, Brunei Darussalam and Timor-Leste which have considerably expanded their coverage through the use of universal tax funded pensions," according to the organization.

The pension gap is happening at the same time that the average life expectancy for Filipinos is rising.

"Between 2000 and 2015, life expectancy rose by five years, which is the fastest increase since the 1960s. This makes the low pension coverage a particularly troubling problem, creating additional financial burdens for family, as the ratio between elderly parents and adult children rise," the ILO noted.

This year, the Philippine government made efforts to increase benefit levels of senior citizens receiving contributory pension and to increase the social pension coverage of indigent senior citizens particularly, the P1,000 pension hike for Social Security System members.

"However, around 40 percent of Filipino senior citizens are still left without income security," ILO said.

"On the positive side though, social protection remains one of the major agenda in the country as reflected in the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022, launched in January 2017," it said.

The plan has identified adopting and institutionalizing the Social Protection Floor as one of the strategies to achieve universal social protection under the strategic framework to reduce vulnerability of individuals and families.

"Specific strategies include establishing an unemployment insurance system, enhancing social protection for the informal sector, improving the social pension system, expanding health insurance packages, and strengthening mechanisms to ensure enrolment in the social security system, among others," ILO said.

"Further, it also highlights the need to address implementation issues on convergence, planning, mainstreaming at the local level and better data collection," it added. — Ted Cordero/VDS, GMA News