Over 400K validated as next DSWD 4Ps beneficiaries

MANILA – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Monday said over 400,000 waitlisted households have been validated by the agency as eligible for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) once the spots are vacated by families who have exited the program.

In July 2023, DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian ordered the re-assessment of the 4Ps beneficiaries who were tagged as "non-poor" by the "Listahanan 3" or the list of households.

DSWD 4Ps national program Director Gemma Gabuya said the re-assessment also resulted in the reinstatement of more than 700,000 beneficiaries.

"Nagbalik na 'yung mga dati na non-poor at naging subsistence o survival kaya hindi agad nakapasok ['yung waitlisted], because nakita nga ng management, particularly ni Secretary Rex, na hindi pa lahat [ng graduates] handa na talagang mag-exit (Those who were previously non-poor have returned and became subsistence or survival, so the waitlisted ones did not enter immediately, because the management, particularly Secretary Rex, saw that not all of the graduates were really ready to exit) from the program," Gabuya said as quoted in a news release.

Gabuya said the exit of the households is in line with the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 11310 or the 4Ps Law which states that "a qualified household-beneficiary shall be deemed to exit from the program, when the last monitored child in the household turns 19 years old."

At present, the DSWD is facilitating the graduation from the program of households who no longer have eligible children or those enrolled in elementary, high school and senior high school.

Gabuya said the DSWD will undertake a validation process to determine the eligibility of over one million households identified as potential 4Ps beneficiaries.

"These are the pool of poor households which were extracted from the Listahanan 3 or the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction," Gabuya said.

To be eligible for the program, identified poor and near poor households or families must be willing to comply with the conditions, must have 0 to 18 years old family members, and/or with a pregnant family member at the time of registration.

Launched in 2008 and institutionalized by RA 11310 in 2019, the 4Ps is the national poverty reduction strategy and human capital investment program that provides conditional cash transfer to poor households for a maximum period of seven years to improve their children's health, nutrition, and education.

Each household beneficiary receives P750 per month for health; P300 per child in elementary, P500 per child in junior high school, and P700 per child in senior high school for education, with a maximum of three children per household for 10 months in a school year; and a monthly rice subsidy of P600 for active and compliant households.

More than four million households nationwide are registered beneficiaries of 4Ps. (PR)