MANILA — Persons with work-related disabilities (PWRDs) will receive a PHP425 increase in their employees’ compensation carer’s allowance every month once President Rodrigo R. Duterte approves the enhanced benefits.
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III, who is also the chairperson of the Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC), said “the increase is in line with the commission’s mandate to upgrade benefits and add new ones, subject to the approval of the President of the Philippines”.
Carer’s allowance is a supplemental pension given to pensioners who suffer from work-connected disabilities — both partial and permanent. Pensioners from private and public sectors benefit from this allowance.
ECC Executive Director Stella Zipagan-Banawis said the increase in carer’s allowance, provided under ECC Board Resolution No. 18-02-03, was based on the study of the Government Service Insurance System, the administering agency of the ECP for the public sector.
Under the study, the State Insurance Fund at the GSIS will remain viable and will last beyond 2066, even after the proposed allowance increase.
Bello added that the increase would not require additional employment compensation premium contribution from employers.
A copy of the ECC board resolution has been submitted to the president for approval. (Ma. Teresa Montemayor/PNA)
