Cognizant of the health and physical limitations of pensioners under the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will soon adopt on a national scale the door-to-door delivery scheme as another way to distribute the pension of the beneficiaries.
“The DSWD is adopting this scheme to make it more convenient for our older persons who have difficulty in traveling. Likewise, by delivering their pensions right to their doorsteps, they can save on transportation expenses in going to payout venues,” DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said.
DSWD Field Offices (FOs) in Region III and the National Capital Region (NCR) have already started the implementation of the scheme in October 2015 in partnership with the Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB) and Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost), respectively, as conduits.
Under the door-to-door delivery scheme, DSWD provides the master list to the conduit, which in turn, delivers the pension to the respective addresses of the beneficiaries.
The door-to-door payout must be completed within 30 calendar days from the receipt of the check and master list by the conduit.
DSWD-FO III is implementing the scheme in 67 municipalities with a total of 29,985 target beneficiaries. As of December 23, some 26,757 seniors have received their pension through the scheme.
DSWD-FO NCR, on the other hand, covers 10 cities with a total of 23,820 target beneficiaries. As of December 23, 2015, some 17,758 seniors have received their pension via door-to-door delivery.
Seniors find relief
A beneficiary from DSWD-FO III, 78 year old Rosario Resulta said, “Nagpapasalamat ako sa ngalan ng mga senior citizens sa aming barangay na isa sa mga nakabenipisyo ng bagong serbisyo ng pag- deliver ng aming pension sa aming bahay (In behalf of all the senior citizens in our barangay, I am thankful that we are now benefiting from the new service of bringing our social pension directly to our homes).”
Amado Acenas, 80, from Barangay Amagna, San Felipe, Zambales is another indigent social pensioner who received his pension through the door-to-door delivery scheme. His wife,Lapaz said this scheme is a welcome development for them as she will no longer spend money for fare to go to town during the payout.
“Four years nang nakaratay ang asawa ko dahil naatake siya at malaking ginhawa ito sa akin (The door-to-door delivery of the pension is a relief to me, as my husband has been bed ridden for four years already due to a heart attack),” Lapaz said.
For 2016, DSWD targets to provide social pension to some 1,368,941 indigent older persons, 60 years old and above, nationwide. ###
