Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) can soon be protected by social security insurance under the AlkanSSSya Program of the state-run Social Security System (SSS).
Through a ceremonial signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) held at the DSWD Central Office on Monday (July 8), DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian and SSS President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rolando Macasaet formalized the provision of low-cost social insurance for the 4Ps beneficiaries who may one day become SSS pensioners.
“This program, we do appreciate it because you are tailor fitting your AlkanSSSya Program into a unique table of contribution that is particularly tailor fit to the financial capacity of our 4Ps beneficiaries,” Secretary Gatchalian said.
To be known as the “4Ps AlkanSSSya Program”, the DSWD and the SSS agreed to create a contribution subsidy table specific for the 4Ps beneficiaries based on actuarial study and the actual capacity of the beneficiaries to pay the minimum amount of Php570.00 per month.
“In the DSWD, we believe that when fifty percent of your budget and your largest flagship program is the 4Ps, we have to keep on making significant upgrades to the program. It cannot be business as usual all the time. So, this is why it is important to us because it is another fruition of upgrading the program. We want to make sure that our 4Ps beneficiaries are self-reliant, self-sufficient, and productive members of society,” Secretary Gatchalian said as he expressed his gratitude to the SSS.
Under the program, 4Ps beneficiaries can register as voluntary paying members. The SSS will facilitate the registration and orientation of the beneficiaries through the regular family development sessions (FDS) and event during the ‘Pugay Tagumpay’ exit program.
According to the SSS president, 4Ps voluntary members can pay their contributions through online payment portals and are not required to go to the SSS office to process their payments, stressing that they are also moving towards digitalization.
“Today’s MOA signing is a step towards the realization of our common goal of protecting the welfare of the most vulnerable sectors of society. Under the leadership of DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian, I know that your agency will focus on the development and deployment of automated systems for your priority frontline services, streamline benefit disbursement,” SSS President Macasaet said.
Earlier, Secretary Gatchalian announced that the agency, in line with the directives of President R. Marcos Jr, is revisiting the policy to upgrade the program and include additional grants to ensure that beneficiaries will not slide back into poverty.
“Part of the mandate of the President is: One, to review the program because the program has been running for 16 years and right now we are revitalizing components of the program. One, we are looking at its automation. It is automated right now but the systems are old… Two, we are also looking at inflation proofing of the program… We are also introducing the First 1000-day grant. We are also looking at all the family development sessions curriculum,” the DSWD chief pointed out.
Secretary Gatchalian said this initiative is part of the agency’s commitment to ensure the financial security and sustainability of 4Ps beneficiaries as they graduate and transition out of the program.
“Sa ganitong paraan, naniniwala po kami na pag grumaduate ang 4Ps beneficiaries namin sa programa, mayroon po silang SSS coverage na aasahan,” Secretary Gatchalian said. (In this way, we believe that when our 4Ps beneficiaries graduate from the program, they will have SSS coverage to look forward to.)
The 4Ps, one of the DSWD’s flagship programs, is a national poverty reduction strategy institutionalized under Republic Act No. 11310 or “An Act Institutionalizing Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)” signed on April 17, 2019.
As of May 31, there are 4.3 million household-beneficiaries nationwide that are receiving conditional cash grants under the program. #
