Economy
Posted on October 03, 2011 11:42:32 PM
TACLOBAN CITY -- Beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer program -- supposedly some of the poorest of the poor -- are being targeted for microinsurance coverage next year, a senior economic official said here recently.
Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran, executive director of the National Credit Council, said in a recent interview here that the Department of Finance is in talks with the Department of Social Welfare and Development to tap cash transfer beneficiaries who are part of state livelihood programs.
“With livelihood programs in place for beneficiaries, the third stage in the process is microinsurance,” Mr. Beltran explained in the interview.
Microinsurance involves low premium payments as well as simpler application and claim processes.
“Through this scheme, they will be protected from calamities and they won’t slide back to poverty,” Mr. Beltran added.
The cash transfer program, formally called Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, has 2.3 million household beneficiaries this year. Their ranks are targeted to increase to three million next year.
Reynaldo M. Vergara, who heads the Insurance Commission’s Actuarial Division, said in a separate interview that the government aims to insure about a fifth of the population by the end of 2012 from 16.65% currently. -- S. Q. Meniano
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