With the aim to accurately and precisely identify potential beneficiaries for the Social Pension Program and Modified Conditional Cash Transfer or MCCT, the Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office II through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) or Listahanan has conducted a regional special validation that assessed a total of 7,860 households.

For Social Pension, there are 6, 246 senior citizens who were validated in the five provinces wherein 155 came from Batanes; 2, 582 from Cagayan; 2, 378 from Isabela; 800 from Nueva Vizcaya and 331 from Quirino respectively.

Qualified beneficiaries for Social Pension shall be entitled to a monthly stipend amounting to P500.00 to augment daily subsistence and other medical needs.

A total of 1, 614 households in the provinces of Cagayan (903) and Isabela (711) were also assessed for the MCCT.  If found eligible they will be mainstreamed in the regular Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

On the other hand, 2,306 Barangay Community Characteristics (BCC) were also administered.

The special validation was conducted by area supervisor and enumerators using the Family Assessment Form or FAF. The form is a four-page questionnaire containing 52 variables to determine the socio-economic status and other relevant data about the households.

NHTS-PR is an information management system that identifies who and where the poor are. The system aims to build socio-economic database of poor households to ensure that qualified beneficiaries will receive the social protection programs and services they deserve. ###By: Ailyn P. Aglaua, Admin. Assistant III, NHTS-PR