The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has received P2.6 billion funding requirement to implement social protection programs, such as Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens, Protective Services for Individuals and Families in Difficult Circumstances, and Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) for 2016.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released the budget last week broken down into Social Pension, P1,200,000,000; Protective Services P1,157,597,000; and SFP, P218,000,000.

Some P8,951,000 was allotted for other activities.

Social Pension is government assistance in the amount of P500 monthly stipend to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of needy senior citizens. The program’s target beneficiaries are senior citizens who are frail, sickly or with disability, without regular income or support from family and relatives; and without pension from Social Security Service, and Government Service Insurance System, among others.

A total of 768,082 indigent senior citizens aged 60 years old and above were served as of April 30, 2016. The Department is targeting one million beneficiaries for this year.

On the other hand, SFP is the provision of food in addition to the regular meals to children currently enrolled in the day care centers as part of the DSWD’s contribution to the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) program of the government.

SFP’s 5th cycle implementation has targeted 2,053,383 Day Care and Supervised Neighborhood Play (SNP) children.  As of April 30, 1,602,925 children have benefited from the program.

Meanwhile, the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) is provided to individuals and families whose normal functioning has been hampered due to difficult situations brought about by poor health condition, natural and man-made calamities, and other emergencies.  The assistance includes counseling, direct financial assistance, and/or the provision of guarantee/referral letters.

A total of 540,384 individuals and families in crisis situations were assisted in 2015 amounting to P1,850,214,233.91. They were provided with counseling services, medical assistance, transportation assistance, food subsistence, educational assistance, and burial assistance, among others.

From January to April 2016, AICS has released P479, 272,375 to respond to various needs of some 167,240 individuals who sought help. ###