Quezon City – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will start its effort to  recover  overpayment made to beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) that received cash assistance from other social amelioration program.

In April 2020, following the declaration of the public health emergency due to Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID 19) Pandemic, the Philippine government passed Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, authorizing certain government agencies to provide subsidies to help the most vulnerable sectors meet their basic needs most especially in accessing food and non-food items through the Social Amelioration Program(SAP). This includes the provision of emergency subsidies that will benefit around 18 million households coming from low income and daily wage earners which includes the 4Ps beneficiaries.

The SAP specifically rationalizes distribution of the emergency subsidies to ensure its fair distribution to qualified beneficiaries across all implementing agencies. This means that for the 4Ps beneficiaries, this will be in two (2) tranches as top-up amount added to their regular cash grants. Because of this, they will no longer be recipients of other social amelioration programs services or packages from other agencies as identified in RA 11469.

For those found out to have received SAP subsidies from other agencies/programs, this will be recovered by the program by deducting the whole amount from the grants which will take effect on the succeeding pay period. Program beneficiaries are also encouraged to coordinate with their respective City/ Municipal Links to facilitate the refund of the overpayment.

4Ps is the poverty reduction strategy of the national government with DSWD as the lead agency. Household beneficiaries are entitled to receive cash subsidies provided that the conditions on health, nutrition, and education are followed. This will foster necessary behaviour for parents to adequately perform the duties and responsibilities, particularly in investing in their children’s future.

4Ps was launched in 2007 covering 300,000 in its pilot run. Currently, the program has 4.4 million registered active households across 41,676 barangays around the country.  ###