Legazpi City–            The Department of Social Welfare and Development Bicol have completed the special validation for the Social Pension and Modified Conditional Cash Transfer Program for Families in Need of Special Protection (MCCT-FNSP) program.

Some 10,643 social pensioners and 472 MCCT beneficiaries all over the region were validated through house to house interviews.

“The distance and weather concerns have caused delay to the enumeration”, said Joy Belen III, Regional Field Coordinator.

Belen disclosed that some areas would take one whole day for the staff to reach and most of the target beneficiaries were scattered.

After the three-month assessment, the office  is currently on Proxy Means Test (PMT) run to classify whether the beneficiaries are poor or not. Proxy Means Test is a statistical model which determines whether the household interviewed is poor or not.

Those who will be classified as poor under Social Pension will continue their monthly stipend while MCCT beneficiaries will guarantee their advancement to the regular Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

The purpose of the special validation is to verify the poverty status of the social pensioners who are not registered in the database. Likewise, MCCT beneficiaries will upgrade to the regular Pantawid Pamilya.

Listahanan is DSWD’s sole database of poor families. It is an information system that identifies who and where the poor are.###