More than 600,000 senior citizens are “waitlisted” or not guaranteed to receive the monthly P1,000-social pension from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) next year.
This is according to DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian, who cited the increasing number of seniors, during the Monday Senate Subcommittee on Finance hearing.
Gatchalian said there are 612,277 waitlisted seniors as of July 2024.
Based on the department’s proposed budget for 2025, he said P5.5 billion has been allocated for waitlisted seniors. However, the amount is in the unprogrammed budget, which depends on the availability of funds.
The current P49-billion allocation is just sufficient for 4 million indigent senior citizens.
The Social Welfare Secretary added that the management of the distribution of social pensions will be transferred from their department to the National Commission of Filipino Citizens (NCSC).
