MM has 29,000 more poor families – DSWD

MANILA, Philippines - Almost 29,000 families in Metro Manila have been identified as being the country’s newest “poorest of the poor” and qualified to be beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said yesterday.

The DSWD’s National Capital Region (NCR) office said these 28,872 families will have to undergo an “eligibility check routine” before they are finally enrolled as beneficiaries under the agency’s CCT program.

The names of the families were posted by the DSWD-NCR in the different barangay halls in the metropolis.

There are currently 219,952 families in Metro Manila who are beneficiaries of the CCT program, according to the DSWD-NCR.

The DSWD is also working to identify beneficiary families with children aged 14 to 18. These families will receive additional cash grants as a result of the expansion of the CCT program’s coverage.

The DSWD had gotten Congress and Palace approval and funding of P10 billion for the expansion of the program this year. The program used to cover only children under 14 years old.

Under the program, family-beneficiaries receive cash grants of P300 per child on the condition that pregnant women undergo prenatal checkups and give birth in accredited birthing facilities, mothers undergo postnatal checkups, children under five undergo preventive health checkups, children aged six to 14 receive deworming pills at least twice a year, children aged three to 14 attend school, and parents or guardians attend family development sessions.

The program was expanded to cover the education of children until they finish Grade 12. A family with a child aged 14 to 18 posting a minimum school attendance rate of 85 percent will get an additional P500.