Bill giving more Benefits and privileges for solo parents filed
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Bill giving more Benefits and privileges for solo parents filed

Aug 2, 2022, 7:51 AM
Dhana Garcia

Dhana Garcia

Writer

House Bill seeks to include single persons that have dependents with some benefits and privileges of solo parents.

Single or unmarried persons with dependents will be provided with more benefits and privileges such as scholarships, monthly subsidies, and a flexible working schedule under a proposed law in the House of Representatives.

PBA party-list Representative Margarita Nograles filed House Bill 1364 or the Single Persons’ Welfare Act which provides a comprehensive program of services for single persons and their dependents to be carried out by the pertinent government and non-government agencies.

The bill seeks to include single persons – those who are not legally married, or were previously married but said marriage was subsequently annulled or legally separated, and those who exercise custody on or financially support someone who is not his or her child – as beneficiaries under R.A. No. 11861 or the Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act.

“The typical Filipino family is, by nature, extended and closely-knit. It is not unusual in a number of Filipino families that the children who have already graduated from college and begun working, or even those who stopped attending school to find work due to poverty, would eventually become the breadwinners of the family,” Nograles explained.
“In almost all cases nationwide, many of such single individuals’ function like a solo parent and bear the most burden in the family. The older children usually support the schooling of their younger siblings. The unmarried or single children, on the other hand, more often than not, support their parents especially when the latter are advancing in age,” she added.

Providing additional benefits and privileges to these single or unmarried individuals will enable them to have more time to attend to various family matters. The bill would help strengthen and develop the Filipino family which is a goal of the 1987 Constitution.

Nograles’ bill was filed last July 6 but released to the media only last Monday.

It includes three benefits namely:

•Educational benefits under Section 9, which mandates the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to provide scholarships to the solo parent and two of his or her dependents;

•Monthly cash pension of P1,500 under Section 15, if the solo parent is a minimum wage earner and does not receive other cash subsidies from the government;

•Flexible work from home schedule under Section 12, which compels employers of single parents to provide flexible working hours and other considerations like telecommuting as long as it does not affect the employee and the company’s productivity

"This is to recognize their sacrifice and their financial and moral contribution for the strengthening of the Filipino family," Nograles said.

Tags: #SinglePerson, #BenefitsAndPrivileges, #Family


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