Proposed P44.25B CCT budget can add 700,000 beneficiaries more in 2013 

TACLOBAN CITY—Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman said the proposed P44.25 billion budget for the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program of the agency would allow to add some 700,000 beneficiaries by 2013.
 
”If the 2013 budget will be approved, about 3.8 million beneficiaries of the program will be served by the government’s anti-poverty reduction program nationwide. As of the last count, there are 3.5 million families currently benefiting from the cash grant,” Soliman said during last week’s launch of the new regional DSWD building in this city.

Soliman said under the proposed budget, the CCT program will get an increase of 12.2% from its 2012 allocation of P39.45 billion. DSWD’s entire proposed budget for next year is P55.97 billion, and 75% of which constitutes the budget for CCT, also known as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

Of the proposed CCT budget, P40.4 billion has been allocated to go to cash grants straight to the beneficiaries through Land Bank of the Philippines and its accredited conduits in areas without automated teller machines.

As of September 5, there are 3,038,420 household-beneficiaries and more than 7.4 million children enrolled in the program.

Soliman noted that by the end of 2013, or five years after the first set of 4Ps implementation in the country, at least 281,000 to 300,000 families are expected to have attained the self-sufficiency level.

“Our goal is to make every poor family with 0-14 year-old children attain self-sufficiency after five years of benefiting from the cash grant,” Soliman said.

Based on the latest national household targeting system, there are about 5.2 million poor families and 4.2-4.6 million of them have 0-14 year-old children, which qualify them for the 4Ps.

 “In 2014, we will re-certify the next family and expenditure survey, and rank the municipalities with high poverty incidence. The result would be our basis to cover more municipalities nationwide to lisr more poor Filipinos under the CCT program,” Soliman added.

As of last the latest count, 372,662 households in Eastern Visayas are covered by 4Ps. The program covers about 91% of the villages in the region.

From January to June 2012, the DSWD has released P456,070,436 cash grants to beneficiaries, P383.11 million of which was allotted for education and P233.79 million for health.

The 4Ps is the Aquino administration’s five-year main poverty mitigation measure. It gives cash grants to poor households, provided that the mothers avail of pre- and post-natal care check-ups and their children are immunized and attend 85% of their classes. Beneficiaries can receive a monthly stipend of up to P1,400, or P500 per mother and P300 each up to three children. (REYAN L. ARINTO)

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Posted by lsde on Sep 12 2012. Filed under Second Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.