THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said that indigent senior citizens may show any valid government-issued identification card (ID) to claim their social pension.
It reiterated that a national ID is not required to collect the payout.
"We just want to clarify that we accept not only the national ID during the payout of social pension. Our grandfathers and grandmothers may present any valid government-issued ID, such as the senior citizen card, to receive their pension," Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao said in a statement on Thursday.
"We are just encouraging our senior citizens to obtain a National ID because eventually different agencies of the government will use this as... primary ID for obtaining or accessing services of our government," she added.
The DSWD said its Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens is a social protection program meant to provide financial aid to qualified senior citizens. "It seeks to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of senior citizens who are frail, ill, or living with a disability and have no regular income or pension, or do not have sufficient support from their families." Republic Act 11916, or An Act Increasing the Social Pension of Senior Citizens, entitled qualified senior citizens to a monthly social pension of 1,000 pesos.
