The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) would no longer qualify almost a million beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) for the allocated government assistance, said DSWD chief Erwin Tulfo on Monday, July 11.
Those waitlisted or those who wish to be qualified for the program would be given a chance to take their place.
According to the Official Gazette, to be eligible for the program, applicants must fulfill the following requirements:
- Residents of the poorest municipalities, based on 2003 Small Area Estimates of the National Statistical Coordination Board
- Households whose economic condition is equal to or below the provincial poverty threshold
- Households that have children 0 to 18 years old and/or have a pregnant woman at the time of assessment
- Households that agree to meet conditions specified in the program
The social department chief said in an interview that they found a need to cleanse the 4Ps list to provide those on the waiting list a chance to be a beneficiary of the program and remove those who are no longer qualified or those whose children already graduated from school.
He noted that 4.4 million recipients currently benefit from the government assistance.
The National Household Targeting System, also known as Listahanan, is used to choose beneficiaries systematically. It is based on a survey of the physical characteristics of beneficiaries’ homes, including the number of rooms and people living in them, whether they have access to running water, and other elements that affect their quality of life.
Benefits
A household beneficiary of the 4Ps may receive one of two kinds of monetary grants.
A health grant of P6,000 per year, or P500 per household; or an education grant of P300 per child every month for 10 months, or P3,000 annually (a household may register a maximum of three children for the program).
DSWD, through the distributes these cash grants to the household recipients through the Land Bank of the Philippines. If this is not feasible, alternative payment methods such as G-Cash remittance and rural bank transactions may be used instead.
Poorest of the poor
The DSWD implements 4Ps in partnership with the Department of Health, the Department of Education, and the National Economic and Development Authority.
According to the World Bank, “4Ps, is a government program that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor in the Philippines.” The program seeks to keep children aged 0-18 healthy and in school to provide them with a better future.
Last December 2021, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that 26.14 million Filipinos lived below the poverty threshold, estimated at P12,082.
