The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said it has adopted the recommendation of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to include eligible families of barangay health workers, daycare workers, and tanods as target beneficiaries of the emergency subsidy under the Bayanihan Fund: Tulong Laban sa COVID-19 Social Amelioration Program (SAP) of the government.

DSWD, in a news release, said based on its consultation with DILG, barangay workers — while considered as government workers who are generally excluded from SAP — are part of sub-minimum wage-earners, defined as those who earn a wage below the prescribed minimum and are the sole income-earner of their family.

As such, they may be considered to receive the assistance and are now excluded from government workers who are ineligible for SAP.

DSWD has already directed SAP implementers nationwide to include the eligible families of the barangay workers as target beneficiaries of the cash subsidy, subject to assessment and under the guidelines of the program.

Barangay workers, DSWD said, play a critical role in the government’s response efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, working as front-liners in delivering aid to residents in need in their communities.

DSWD, in coordination with other concerned agencies, continues to deliver the emergency cash subsidy provided for under Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which amounts to PHP5,000 to PHP8,000 to support low-income families or those in the subsistence economy or workers in the informal economy, and with members belonging to the vulnerable sector, who are deemed to be the most affected by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.