ILOILO City – Seventy-seven percent of the 365,765 Western Visayas senior citizen beneficiaries of the Social Pension Program has been paid out, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
The pension is P500 per month, said Gretchen Anne Taleon, DSWD Region 6 social worker officer II.
The payout is being done every three months and coursed through various municipal social welfare offices.
In the first quarter (first three months) of this year, 365,765 pensioners each received P1,500.
In the second quarter, there were 363,337 paid out beneficiaries while in the third quarter, 304,331.
For the fourth quarter of the year, 98,627 pensioners have so far received P1,500 each.
According to Taleon, they discovered that some beneficiaries were not actually eligible for the social pension and so they were removed from the list.
Others were no longer living in their listed addresses, she added.
Only the following senior citizens are qualified for the Social Pension Program:
* the indigent
* not pensioners of the Social Security System, Government Service Insurance System or private pension agencies
* have no regular income and with no regular support from the family
Municipal social workers have the responsibility to check if the beneficiaries in their areas are indeed qualified, said Taleon.
DSWD is constantly reviewing its list of social pension beneficiaries, she added./PN
