More than 5.78 million poor, near-poor, and low-income households across the country have received financial assistance under the Marcos administration’s Unified Package for Livelihood, Industry, Food, and Transport (UPLIFT) program, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Monday.
DSWD spokesperson Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao said the agency is nearing completion of the payout, particularly for Group 1 beneficiaries who are entitled to a one-time disbursement and already have bank or digital accounts on file.
UPLIFT sorts beneficiaries into three groups. Group 1 covers households already enrolled in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and the Walang Gutom Program, DSWD’s conditional cash transfer and food assistance programs. This group has received the bulk of the payouts so far, with 3,214,485 households paid to date.
Group 2 consists of poor and near-poor households identified through the Philippine Statistics Authority’s Community-Based Monitoring System, a household-level poverty database used to target social programs. DSWD has recorded 1,755,561 beneficiaries paid in this group.
Group 3 covers low-income members of the Social Security System, the state pension fund for private-sector workers. DSWD said 811,368 beneficiaries in this group have received their cash aid through their registered SSS disbursement accounts.
“Rest assured po sa ating mga benepisyaryo na matatanggap po nila ang ipinangakong tulong ng pamahalaan para maibsan ang kanilang hirap na dinaranas sa panahon ng energy emergency,” Dumlao said in Filipino, assuring beneficiaries they will receive the assistance promised by the government to ease the hardship they face during the energy emergency.
Dumlao said DSWD continues to coordinate with local government units and partner agencies such as SSS to keep the program moving. She said the effort follows President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s directive to help Filipinos recover during the emergency, and that DSWD has not stopped monitoring and distributing UPLIFT assistance.
Field validation is ongoing to locate the remaining beneficiaries under Groups 2 and 3 who have yet to receive their initial payout. Dumlao said some of these beneficiaries may have moved to new addresses, had changes in their economic status, or hold bank accounts that have gone dormant.
DSWD did not provide a specific timeline for when the remaining Group 2 and 3 payouts will be completed, saying only that validation and distribution work continues.
