BACOLOD CITY—A total of P277,500 in social pension was released by the Department of Social Welfare and Development-Negros Island Region (DSWD-NIR) to 185 senior citizens in this city on Wednesday.
Each senior citizen received P1,500, representing the amount for the last quarter, during the turnover rites held at the Bacolod City Government Center facilitated in by the City Department of Social Services and Development.
Indigent senior citizens shall be entitled to a monthly stipend amounting to P500, as provided in the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, or “An Act to Maximize the Contribution of Senior Citizens to nation-building, Grant Benefits And Special Privileges and for Other Purposes.”
The amount is intended to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of senior citizens.
Based on the needs of senior citizens, the DSWD has been expanding the program yearly. For 2016, indigents 60 years old and above who meet the criteria can already benefit from the program.
Qualified to receive monthly pension are seniors who are frail, sickly, or with disability, without pension from Government Service Insurance System, Social Security System, Armed Forces and Police Mutual Benefit Association Inc., and other insurance companies and without any permanent source of income or regular support from his or her relatives.