DSWD: Only 13% of 4Ps payout disbursed due to cleansing of beneficiary list

Only 13% or around P12.7 billion out of the P94 billion budget for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) have been disbursed so far due to the ongoing cleansing of beneficiary list, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian said Thursday.

Gatchalian made the announcement during the House appropriations panel hearing on the DSWD's proposed P207 billion budget for 2024.

“Of the P94.3 billion budget for 4Ps for 2023, 30.74% have been obligated while the disbursement rate is at 13.46%. Admittedly, this is a bit low because we are completing the validation and further assessment of the 4Ps beneficiaries tagged non-poor under Listahanan 3,” he said.

The DSWD chief said the identification of non-poor households in the Listahanan 3 was based on a tool called Social Welfare Development Indicators.

“Let me explain that this low utilization is a temporary state, since we are fast tracking the validation of existing households who are tagged non-poor by recent Listahanan 3. We hope to complete the assessment process by September 2023 to determine the eligibility of the households, whether they will be retained as beneficiaries or they will exit the program,” Gatchalian said.

He, however, said the target number of 4Ps beneficiaries will remain at 4.4 million households even after the cleansing of the list.

“In case of the exit of non-eligibles, this will facilitate the integration of new beneficiaries as replacements to reach the target of [having] 4.4 million households,” Gatchalian pointed out.

“We hope to reach 4.4 million households by October and [also] expedite the payment for enhanced support system intervention and cash grant for payment  period in 2017 and 2018. It is also expected that incremental operating cost will increase, leading to increased utilization of the fund,” he added.

Gatchalian said that based on DSWD’s projection, the 4Ps program will have a clean list of 4.4 million beneficiary households by October to November this year, and will be maintained until December 2023.

“By then, a total of P96. 55 billion, inclusive of incremental operating cost, will be obligated, which will translate to 94% utilization rate,” he added.

The conditionalities of the 4Ps program promote human development goals such as having regular medical check-ups and sending their children to school at least 85% of the school days and attending family development sessions.—AOL, GMA Integrated News