500,000 households to exit 4Ps this year

THE Department of Social Welfare and Development expects around 500,000 Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) household beneficiaries to graduate from the program by the end of 2024. Households that exit from the program have been determined to have attained self-sufficiency. "It demonstrates that they have the capacity to fulfill their needs; even in times of crisis, they have something for themselves and provide for their children's schooling," 4Ps Social Marketing Division Chief Marie Grace Ponce said on Thursday. Ponce said that under Republic Act (RA) 11310, generally referred to as the 4Ps Act, the program will offer conditional cash transfers to low-income households for a maximum of seven years. "I'd like to emphasize the seven years in which they are part of a case management process in wherein there is a plan established from beginning to end in order to help them mend and prepare for their life after the program," Ponce said. Aside from reaching the seven-year limit and the self-sufficiency level, Rule XV Section 35 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the 4Ps Law also states that the reasons for beneficiaries to exit the program include: the last child being monitored in the household reaching the age of 18 or completing high school; voluntary withdrawal from the program; and a violation or offense in the program resulting in penalties or removal from the program. The 4Ps, which was launched in 2008 and institutionalized by RA 11310 in 2019, is the national poverty reduction strategy and human capital investment program that provides poor households with conditional cash transfers to improve their children's health, nutrition, and education.