What is the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program? Research Paper

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program that provides cash grants to poor households with children 0-14 years old and/or pregnant mothers, provided that they comply with the conditions set by the program

Objectives: social assistance- provides conditional cash assistance to the poor to alleviate their immediate needs (short-term poverty alleviation), and social development- aims to break the intergenerational poverty cycle through investments in human capital. Who are qualified for Pantawid Pamilya?

A household may qualify for Pantawid Pamilya as a beneficiary if it satisfies two criteria:

1. At the time of the survey, the household must be classified as poor, based on the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) and
2. Have a pregnant woman and/or children 0-14 years old as a household member(s). Thus, being included in the NHTS-PR list of poor households does not automatically qualify a household for Pantawid Pamilya. In the same manner, not all households with a pregnant woman or young children as members will qualify for the program. What are the conditions of the Pantawid Pamilya?

Health and nutrition conditions require periodic checkups, growth monitoring, and vaccinations for children 0-5 years of age; twice a year intake of de-worming pills for children 6-14 years old, pre-and post-natal care for pregnant women, and attendance of parents in family development sessions where responsible parenthood is discussed. Education conditions include day-care and school enrollment, attendance equivalent to 85 percent of school days for children 3 – 14 years old. Both conditions are meant to improve the poor household’s economic prospects to help them move out of poverty. What does the program offer to households?

Households that comply with all the health conditions will receive P500 per month, Households that comply with the education conditions will receive P300 per child per month. Up to three qualified children can benefit from the education grant. Education grants will only be given during months with classes.

• The cash grants, which are given every two months, will be received directly by household beneficiaries through their Land Bank cash cards or over-the-counter payments at Landbank branches. The Land Bank also utilizes other modes to distribute the cash in hard-to-reach areas such as off-site payment, and G-cash remit. Other payment schemes are continuously being explored, also in collaboration with the private sector, Is Pantawid Pamilya program dole-out?
• No. Conditional cash grants are given only to households that comply with the program conditions. Beneficiaries sign an Oath of Commitment, thereby establishing a “social contract”, where they agree to take some concrete steps to improve their lives and those of their children.
• Beneficiaries who fail to comply with certain conditions will not receive the benefits corresponding to the conditions and are given reminders. Failure to comply for the third time will lead to suspension of cash grants, in which beneficiaries are given 12 months to appeal and comply. Failure to comply for the fourth time will render the beneficiary ineligible and will be given notice that they will be delisted. Does Pantawid Pamilya encourage indolence/mendicancy among its beneficiaries?
• No. First, the conditional cash grant only augments the household income and assists parents to support their household’s basic needs. The amount is not enough to support a family and will therefore not lead productive members of the household to stop working or stop looking for work. Second, this assistance is only temporary. Beneficiaries are expected to graduate from the program after 5 years.
• The program has family development sessions where beneficiaries are taught about responsible parenthood (parenting duties, obligations) and how to supplement their household’s income through backyard gardening, handicraft making, etc.
• The CCT grant is small by design so as not to discourage poor people from seeking their own way out of poverty. What the grant does, though, is encourage people to keep their children in school and seek proper health care so that they can lift themselves out of poverty and gradually break the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

What are the systems set up by DSWD to make Pantawid Pamilya work?

In all Pantawid Pamilya areas, the following systems are established and running effectively: a. Compliance Verification System (CVS): reporting of health facility usage and school attendance to verify that children 0 -14 are complying with the conditions for the grants. The data generated by the CVS is the basis of the number of cash grants a household can receive. b. Beneficiary Update system (BUS): regular reporting from beneficiaries on changes in household information such as new school enrollment or changes in health centers and other information that could affect the number of cash grants they are entitled to receive. Updating information in the database is important as update errors may result in errors in compliance verification and consequently, deduction of grants. c. Grievance Redress System (GRS): reporting and addressing of grievances and complaints from beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. Complaints are addressed and solved at the central, regional, provincial and municipality levels depending on the type of complaint.

Poverty, as one of the major problems in the Philippines, which the government tried to solve or reduce this problem. As part of Millennium Development Goals in the Philippines, 4p’s or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program was created. This is the program of the government that provides financial assistance or monetary aid to the poorest family which has a child 0-14 years old, including pregnant women.

This program is similar to the cash transfer scheme implemented in other developing countries. It aims to provide financial aid to poor beneficiaries. The government believes that investment in human capital would lessen the great financial problem of the family. The said program will help the family send their children to school and provide them the basic needs and proper nutrition.

Due to political problems in the country, many beneficiaries of 4p’s complain that some politicians are threatening them. If they will not support the candidacy of the said politician they will be removed from the list of 4p’s beneficiaries. In some radio station news, it was reported that some poorest families were not able to receive or benefit from the program because 4p’s was being politicized. Some beneficiaries were not able to receive the exact amount of money even though they were able to comply with all the requirements. 4p’s is really helpful but some beneficiaries, instead of searching for a job for additional income, just use 4p’s as a main source of money.

Do you think this program will be successful in reducing poverty in the country? or will this program be the reason for some beneficiaries to become lazy?

Program Coverage

Pantawid Pamilya operates in 79 provinces covering 1484 municipalities and 143 key cities in all 17 regions nationwide. The program has 3,927,917 registered households as of 26 June 2013.

Program Cycle

The implementation of Pantawid Pamilya Program follows the 8-step cycle starting from the

1. selection of target areas,
2.  supply-side assessment,
3. selection of household beneficiaries,
4. registration and validation of beneficiaries,
5. Family Registry preparation,
6. initial payment,
7. verification of compliance and
8. 2nd and succeeding release of cash grants.

Program Package

Pantawid Pamilya provides cash grants to the beneficiaries to wit: P6,000 a year or P500 per month per household for health and nutrition expenses; and P3000 for one school year or 10 months or P300/month per child for educational expenses. A maximum of three children per household is allowed. A household with three qualified children receives a subsidy of P1,400/month during the school year or P15,000 annually as long as they comply with the conditionalities. The cash grants shall be received by the most responsible person in the household, usually the mother, through a Land Bank cash card.

In cases where payment through a cash card is not feasible, the beneficiaries shall be provided their cash grants through an alternative payment scheme such as over-the-counter transactions from the nearest Landbank branch or offsite payments through Landbank. Cash grants are also released through other rural banks, Globe Remit, Philpost, First Consolidated Bank, and other Cooperative Financial Institutions (CFI), especially in far-flung areas.

Conditional Cash Transfer Program in the Philippines: Is It Reaching the Extremely Poor?

Every barangay there’s a representative. They coordinate first in their barangay before implementing the program. Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is a human development program of the national government that invests in the health and education of poor households, particularly of children aged 0-14 years old.

Patterned after the conditional cash transfer scheme implemented in other developing countries, the Pantawid Pamilya provides cash grants to beneficiaries provided that they comply with the set of conditions required by the program.

Pantawid Pamilya has dual objectives:

1. Social Assistance – to provide cash assistance to the poor to alleviate their immediate need (short term poverty alleviation); and
2. Social Development – to break the intergenerational poverty cycle through investments in human capital. Pantawid Pamilya helps to fulfill the country’s commitment to meet the Millennium Development Goals, namely:
3. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
4. Achieve Universal Primary Education
5. Promote Gender Equality
6. Reduce Child Mortality
7. Improve Maternal Health