THE Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) has assured senior citizens that Senior IDs issued in 2022 and earlier will still be valid for receiving subsidies.
OSCA Head Lorenzo Borja told the City Information Office that while seniors are encouraged to update their IDs, those who have not yet done it will still receive financial assistance this year.
He clarified, however, that all senior citizens must possess a valid OSCA ID to qualify for the annual subsidy. The cut-off date for this year’s subsidy registration is set on May 31, meaning individuals who turn 60 in June 2025 will only be eligible to receive their subsidy in 2026.
To facilitate ID updates, OSCA teams are actively coordinating with the barangays, People’s Organizations, and the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) to reach out to elderly individuals who may struggle to visit the office.
CSWDO Head Julie Dayaday earlier said that updating the IDs is part of the effort to unify the city’s senior citizen master list, as separate lists from different agencies earlier led to discrepancies in the data.
She said that they are currently updating their records because the previous system lacked a unified, data-based approach.
“Kay to'ng una, kung kinsa tong myembro sa association among i-masterlist, medyo nakita namo nga dili unified ang data. Updating kasi si OSCA karon sa ilahang data kay naa paman gyo’y karaan kaayo unya wala paman ta naka data-based atong unang panahona (Previously, we observed that the data was not unified because people who are members of the association are already included in the master list. OSCA is currently updating their data since some people still have extremely old IDs and we weren't previously data-based,),” she said. CIO