The Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) lowered the minimum requirement for the grant of the complementary benefit worth P10,000 as livelihood assistance for persons with work-related disabilities (PWRDs).

All PWRDs with livelihood projects funded by the ECC and which have been operating for at least three months need not wait to sustain their livelihood project for a period of at least one year. The ECC will grant them a complementary kit of P10,000, should the PWRDs’ livelihood projects show progress and viability in the last three months since they started.

ECC Executive Director Stella Zipagan-Banawis said that this latest move by the ECC is an immediate response to alleviate the financial sufferings of the PWRDs during this pandemic.

“The past year was tough for everyone especially for our PWRDs whose livelihood projects were affected but are still surviving. This is the reason why we revisited the requirement for the complimentary benefit, for us to give immediate support as a response to these challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Director Banawis added.

In 2020, 78 PWRDS were provided a total of P780,000 or P10,000 each to further support the initial livelihood projects, under the ECC’s Katulong at Gabay sa Manggagawang may Kapansanan (KaGabay) Program which provided a P20,000 livelihood starter kit.

“We want to emphasize that the complementary benefits can be given only to those PWRDs who were initially granted with the livelihood projects and whose EC Claims applications were approved first by the administering agencies–the Social Security System, for the private sector and the Government Service Insurance System, for the public sector,” Banawis added.

ECC is closely monitoring the livelihood projects of the claimants as a basic requirement for the grant of the compensation benefit.

ECC’s Livelihood Starter Kit which is worth P20,000, and the complementary benefit worth P10,000,  is part of the ECC’s KaGabay Program. KaGabay Program is an economic assistance program for PWRDs who lost employment by reason of work-related sickness or injury.