The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Friday it directly provides Livelihood Assistance Grants (LAG) to low-income families in the informal sector in full, as mandated by the law, and has no disbursement arrangement with any agency.
It issued the reminder after some beneficiaries in Central Luzon were reportedly promised speedy processing of the LAG by a certain Magic 7 Cooperative.
“The DSWD Field Office (FO) 3 received a report that the said cooperative is allegedly deducting and collecting a part of the grants,” the DSWD said in a statement.
The DSWD FO 3 has no history and existing transactions with the cooperative and the officials are conducting a fact-finding on the complaint.
It said the cash assistance is in accordance with existing accounting and auditing rules.
“The full amount of grants indicated in the payroll were directly distributed to the beneficiaries,” the DSWD added.
To date, 22,122 LAG beneficiaries in the region have received their livelihood assistance, with a total of PHP241,550,934 already disbursed.
The agency said it continues to validate and monitor the distribution of LAG to ensure that the grants are used by target beneficiaries for their chosen livelihood projects, as identified by their local government units.
The LAG is among the DSWD efforts to support the establishment and rehabilitation of livelihood of families affected by the imposition of community quarantine due to the pandemic.
It is part of the recovery phase of the Social Amelioration Program that helps pandemic-hit families recover by providing support to new or existing micro-enterprise projects and augmenting their expenses for pre-employment requirements.
For similar incidents, the department encourages the public to immediately report to the Agency Operations Center hotline 8888. (PR)
