KORONADAL CITY — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) called on Monday beneficiaries of Conditional Cash Transfer to use their additional unconditional grants wisely.

Last week, the government wired nearly half billion pesos in bank accounts of beneficiaries of state’s anti-poverty program in Central Mindanao to help them counter the effects of new tax reform bill.

Around 182,818 households of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program clients in Region 12 and 10,818 more households in Marawi City received each Php 2,400 pesos under Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT).

The UCT is a program of the DSWD to help the country’s poorest families cope from the effects of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law.

This year, each beneficiary will receive P200 per month while in 2019 and 2020, the subsidy will increase to P300 monthly. Nationwide, the 10 million beneficiaries of UCT comprise the following: 4.4 million are beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilya, three million are indigent older persons under the Department’s Social Pension Program while 2.6 million are from the Listahanan poverty database of the Department.

“We are looking forward our beneficiaries will not use their money for vices. We are monitoring them,” Dir. Taha said.

Dir. Taha said  the agency is currently exploring all measures so that other qualified beneficiaries in Region 12 will be included in the UCT program.

DSWD Officer-in-Charge Emmanuel A. Leyco said last week the UCT was developed as component of the national government’s Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or TRAIN program.

“To minimize administrative costs, the DSWD has decided to give the UCT cash grants on a yearly basis,” OIC Leyco said.

“We are confident that the beneficiaries will use their subsidies wisely, as various studies reveal that 98 percent of poor families spend government cash grants on food and basic commodities,” he added

The UCT is on top of  beneficiaries’ regular cash grant and P600 rice subsidy from the program.

Under CCT,  the government allocates grants amounting to P500 to P1, 400 for each beneficiary household, depending on the number of eligible children. Each family is allowed a maximum of three children to receive the monthly benefits provided they have to stay in school and maintain class attendance of at least 85 percent each month.

At the same time, pregnant women are also required to avail pre- and post-natal care, and delivery must be assisted by skilled health personnel, while parents are mandatory to take “family development sessions” to enable them to become better parents. (JBM/DSWD)