Philippines: Social Protection Review and Assessment

A comprehensive review of the Philippines' social protection (SP) system in 2018.

Updated: Mar 23, 2025
paper By Pablo Acosta, Ruslan Yemtsov, Maddalena Honorati, Rashiel Velarde, Jorge Avalos

Introduction

This document provides an inventory and assessment of key social protection (SP) programs in the Philippines. It aims to inform the ongoing review of the country’s SP framework and determine the programs’ relevance. The report is intended for policymakers, program implementers, and stakeholders interested in understanding the SP landscape in the Philippines and its effectiveness in addressing poverty and vulnerability.

Key Insights

Definitions and SP Categories in the Philippines

Each country defines social protection based on its specific challenges and historical context. In 2007, the Philippines adopted a national definition: “Policies and programs that seek to reduce poverty and vulnerability to risks and enhance the social status of and rights of marginalized groups by promoting and protecting livelihood and employment, protecting against hazards and sudden loss of income, and improving people’s capacity to manage risk.” (Social Development Committee of Cabinet (SDC) Resolution No. 1 Series of 2007).

Overall Program Mapping

The Philippines operates a broad array of SP programs, reflecting a high government priority and the country’s capacity as a middle-income nation. These programs fall into broad categories:

  • Social Welfare: Social assistance and transfers, and emergency and disaster relief.
  • Social Insurance: National Health Insurance Scheme (PhilHealth) and pensions.
  • Labor Market Interventions: Productive inclusion and protection measures.

Social Welfare

Social Assistance and Transfers: Includes the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program covering about a quarter of the population, and smaller in-kind/cash benefit programs.

Emergency and Disaster Relief: DSWD introduces cash transfers for emergencies as part of its disaster response, with small-scale programs expanded rapidly in natural disasters (Acosta et al. 2018).

Social Insurance

National Health Insurance Scheme (PhilHealth): A compulsory scheme for all wage employees, PhilHealth aims to pool risk across individuals, offering hospitalization, outpatient services, and medicines. Subsidized schemes aim for universal coverage, effectively covering 60% of the poor.

Pensions: Include nationwide compulsory contributory programs (SSS and GSIS) and a non-contributory social pension (Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens). Approximately 31% of elderly are covered by pensions.

Labor Market Interventions

Productive Inclusion and Protection: This area includes measures to protect workers’ conditions, active labor market interventions, OFW protection, and entrepreneurship/microcredit programs for the informal sector.

National Social Protection Strategy Objectives

The objectives of the National Social Protection Strategy (SDC Resolution No. 2 Series of 2009) are:

  • Protect and prevent people from falling from their current income/consumption levels due to various risks factors.
  • Build capacity and adaptability to ensure that better quality of life is maintained and sustained.
  • Expand opportunities for income expansion and improve human capital investments in the long term.
  • Sustain standards of living in spite of exposure to risks of different types.

Implementation of Participatory Strategies

  • Scaling up of Community-Driven Development
  • Convergence in the Delivery of Core Responses
  • Building Adaptive Capacities at All Levels of Implementation
  • Institutionalized Monitoring & Evaluation System

Key Statistics & Data

  • Social Welfare: 17 national programs.
  • Social Insurance: 12 national programs.
  • Labor Market: 22 national programs.
  • SSNs and Social Care: 12 national programs.
  • Other Programs: 2 national programs.
  • Combined number of beneficiaries (Social Welfare): 66,570,000
  • Combined number of beneficiaries (Social Insurance): 30,740,000
  • Combined number of beneficiaries (Labor Market): 2,345,200
  • Combined number of beneficiaries (SSNs and Social Care): 65,000
  • Combined number of beneficiaries (Other Programs): 25,350,000
  • Budget as % of total (Social Welfare): 30.0%
  • Budget as % of total (Social Insurance): 61.6%
  • Budget as % of total (Labor Market): 4.3%
  • Budget as % of total (SSNs and Social Care): 0.0%
  • Budget as % of total (Other Programs): 4.0%

Methodology

The report makes an inventory of key SP programs in the Philippines and assesses the country’s SP framework. The methodology involved reviewing existing literature, policy documents, program data, and other relevant sources. This data was analyzed to provide an overview of the SP sector, its performance, and its challenges.

Implications and Conclusions

  • The Philippines has achieved relatively good coverage of the poor and extreme poor through social welfare schemes.
  • The Philippines lacks adequate protection for the middle class, mostly employed in the informal sector.
  • The objectives of the SP strategy are broadly consistent with the needs of the population, focusing on protection, adaptability, and targeting vulnerable groups.
  • Aligning social insurance design and delivery systems with the needs of informal workers is critical to expanding coverage.

Key Points

  • The Philippines has a high level of effort and institutional development in social protection, with a coherent architecture around social assistance, social insurance, and labor market interventions.
  • Effective coverage gaps exist in both contributory and noncontributory programs, but most are designed to reach the poorest and vulnerable populations.
  • Social protection has contributed to an observed reduction in poverty and inequality, mostly driven by national social safety net programs.
  • The Philippines suffers from a weak level of coherence in its SP programs, resulting in fragmented and overlapping initiatives.
  • The National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), or Listahanan, is used to determine eligibility for major social benefit programs.
  • The National Social Protection Strategy adopted in 2009 aims to protect people from falling from their current income/consumption levels due to various risk factors.
  • While SP programs target and prioritize poor and vulnerable populations, an integrated social protection information system is needed for better monitoring of inputs, outputs, and outcomes.