182,000 more indigent households in CL enrolled to the Pantawid Pampamilya

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — A total of 182,455 more indigent households in Central Luzon have been enrolled to the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program after several local chief executives recently inked with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the implementation of such under Set 6.

DSWD Regional Director Adelina Apostol said, “Set 6 brings the number of Pantawid Pamilya recipients in Central Luzon to 283,991 covering all 13 cities and 117 towns. We have accomplished 88.02 percent of our goal of reaching all 322,622 identified poor in the region to the program.”

Under Set 6, Nueva Ecija has the most number of enrollees at 49,776 followed by Bulacan-43,250; Pampanga – 37,525; Tarlac- 25,889; Bataan-12,633; Zambales-12,256; and Aurora- 1,126.  Apostol explained, “Pantawid Pamilya provides cash grants of P1,400 per month during school months from June to March and P500 per month during non-school months from April to May or P300 per child per month as education grant and P500 per household per month as health grant to household beneficiaries as long as they comply with certain conditions like the regular visit of children in health centers to avail immunization and maintenance of a class attendance rate of at least 85 percent per month for those who are enrolled in day care centers or schools.”

Grantees were selected through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) – the similar instrument used in determining the recipients of the Self Employment Assistance-Kaunlaran (SEA-K), Social Pension and Cash-for-Work programs.

NHTS-PR is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are in the country. It uses the Proxy Means Test (PMT) in the selection of beneficiaries for social welfare programs and services.

The PMT is a statistical model that estimates household income using proxy variables included in the household assessment form (HAF).  Some of the variables used in the PMT are family composition, education of household members, housing conditions and access to basic services.

These variables were sourced out from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) and Labor Force Survey (LFS) of the National Statistics Office.  A household whose economic condition falls on or below the poverty line would qualify for the specific programs and services of DSWD. (CLJD/RGSD-PIA 3)