Sotto files bill increasing indigent seniors’ social pension to P1,000

Senate President Vicente Sotto III has filed a bill which seeks to increase the indigent seniors’ social pension from P500 to P1,000.

Senate Bill 2243, filed on Thursday, will amend the Senior Citizens Act. It also states that the mandatory social pension of the indigent seniors should not be less than P1,000.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development, in consultation with other stakeholders, is mandated to adjust the amount of social pension, when necessary, every two years after the effectivity of the proposed measure.

The adjustments will consider the consumer price index as published by the Philippine Statistics Authority and other economic indicators.

It will also be subject to the approval of the Department of Budget and Management.

The implementation and distribution of the social pension will likewise be transferred from the DSWD to the National Commission of Senior Citizens within three years after the effectivity of the measure.

Sotto said, in his explanatory note, that in 2019 there are 3,796,791 indigent senior citizens in the country who are struggling to meet their basic necessities and health care needs due to lack of permanent source of income.

“The numerous benefits and privileges for senior citizens at present in the country can only be availed consistently from merchants in malls and big service providers, which our indigent senior citizens cannot afford to go to due to higher prices of goods in these establishments,” he said.

“These discounts are mostly not available in the neighborhood stores and in their local wet markets. Thus, the rising cost of living and the added financial burden brought about by the present pandemic has taken a toll on our indigent senior citizens,” the Senate leader pointed out.

Sotto said enacting this bill will aid the indigent senior citizens defray the cost of daily subsistence and other medical needs.—AOL, GMA News