Social pension: DSWD-7 taps household survey data to identify beneficiaries
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu — The government’s Social Pension Program for Indigent Senior Citizens will now use household survey data to identify and verify beneficiaries.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office 7 (DSWD-7) has adopted the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) as its official targeting tool for selecting and validating beneficiaries across Central Visayas.
Under the new system, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) generates a master list of eligible senior citizens using CBMS data, with age serving as the primary eligibility criterion.
READ: DSWD: Seniors will need national ID by April to claim social pensions
The CBMS is a technology-based system that collects and processes detailed household-level data for local planning, poverty monitoring, and program targeting.
It involves nationwide household surveys conducted every three years to provide updated information that guides local government units in forming policies and allocating resources.
READ: Social pension: How and where seniors can apply in Cebu
Social Pension for Indigents
For the Social Pension Program for Indigent Seniors, the DSWD-7 is currently verifying the PSA-generated master list to ensure the accuracy of entries and to limit external influence in the identification of beneficiaries.
Under the CBMS-based approach, the number of new beneficiaries is no longer linked to the number of those removed from the list, ending the previous replacement-based system.
Instead, inclusion will depend on the actual number of qualified seniors identified through the data, based on age and recorded household information.
Meanwhile, the agency has also started using the Basta Beripikado, Mabilis ang Serbisyo online application to facilitate National ID verification among beneficiaries.
The platform uses in-person validation and data from the Philippine Identification System to confirm identities, avoid duplicate entries, and streamline the release of social pension benefits.
The Social Pension Program provides a quarterly stipend to indigent senior citizens aged 60 and above who are not receiving any government or private pension.
Beneficiaries receive a monthly assistance of P1,000 under Republic Act No. 11916.
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