An additional 4,000 senior citizens of Bacolod City, who are not receiving any kind of pension, will be included in list of beneficiaries who will receive the social pension starting this year.
Currently, there are 2,700 social pensioners in the city receiving a monthly allowance of P500 from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
The latest addition was verified by Bacolod City Lone District Rep. Greg Gasataya with the DSWD-Western Visayas and has been included in the budget for 2021.
Pacita Tero, head of the City Department of Social Services and Development, the additional number of pensioners are those in the waiting list since last year and were verified by DSWD personnel to be qualified beneficiaries.
There are a lot more applicants for the social pension waiting for the schedule of verification, she added.
The social pension is released every semester or every six months, wherein each pensioner can receive P3,000 each.
Meanwhile, the DSSD is now finalizing the list of senior citizens who will be included in the COVID-19 vaccination program of the city.
Those in the list are only the registered seniors citizens with identification cards, but there are still a number of senior citizens not yet registered in their barangays, Tero said. – MML
