The good news is indigent seniors will start receiving P1,000 social pension starting February.

Now the bad news: At least 466,000 qualified indigent senior citizens will have to wait for the demise of current recipients to be able to receive the benefits.

Nueva Ecija Rep. Rosanna “Ria" Vergara, chairperson of the House Committee on Social Services, vowed to look into the issue, saying that a solution to the problem has become urgent and imperative.

“In our LGU, we can only add a new beneficiary when the previous one dies - in short it does not allow us to provide for all indigents as the budget allocated is not increase yearly,” she lamented.

Actually the budget for the social pension program for indigent senior citizens has nearly doubled this year but the amount of monthly financial assistance has likewise increased from Php 500 to P1,000 for each beneficiary.

This is the result of Republic Act 11916 or an Act Increasing the Social Pension of Indigent Senior Citizens which the Department of Social Welfare and Development will implement starting this year.

Thus, for 2024, Congress allocated Php 49.81 billion for the program, increasing its previous budget from Php 25.31 billion.

The budget hike does not even comprise 100 percent of the previous allocation yet RA 11916 provides a 100 adjustment of impoverished senior citizens from Php 500 to Php 1,000 per month.

DSWD Asst. Secretary for Strategic Communications and spokesperson Romel Lopez revealed that beneficiaries of the pension program have reached 4,085,066 this year.

“We expect that the distribution of the social pension for the first semester with its increased amount will commence this February, 2024,” he said.

RA 11916 lapsed into law when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. did not sign it for a period provided by law.

According to Lopez the DSWD qualifies beneficiaries of the program. They are senior citizens who are “frail, sickly or disabled” and those who do not have permanent source of income and are dependent on family members and relatives for food, medicine and other basic needs.