Short answer. Under Section 5 of RA 8972, solo parents and their families get a comprehensive package of social development and welfare services: livelihood development, counseling, parent effectiveness services, critical incidence stress debriefing, and special projects such as temporary shelter, legal assistance, and medical care. These are now expanded under Republic Act 11861 (2022).
What the law says
The package will initially include: (a) Livelihood development services which include trainings on livelihood skills, basic business management, value orientation and the provision of seed capital or job placement. (b) Counseling services which include individual, peer group or family counseling.
RA 8972, Section 5 — Package Of Welfare Services. Read the full provision →
A coordinated package, not a single benefit
Section 5 of Republic Act 8972 promises solo parents a Comprehensive Package of Social Development and Welfare Services. Rather than one cash grant, it is a bundle of services meant to help a solo parent stand on her own feet. The law says the package will be developed by the DSWD, DOH, DECS, CHED, TESDA, DOLE, NHA and DILG, in coordination with local government units and a qualified nongovernmental organization. The DSWD is put in charge of coordinating its implementation. So the help is designed to be delivered by many agencies working together, with the local government as the nearest point of contact for a family in need.
Livelihood and counseling
The package begins with earning a living and coping emotionally. It includes Livelihood development services which include trainings on livelihood skills, basic business management, value orientation and the provision of seed capital or job placement. This aims to give a solo parent either a small-business start or a job. It also includes Counseling services which include individual, peer group or family counseling, focused on resolving personal-relationship and role conflicts. The pairing is deliberate: raising a family alone is both a financial and an emotional strain, and the law treats the two as needing support side by side.
Parenting support and crisis debriefing
Two further services strengthen the parent's role and resilience. The package provides Parent effectiveness services which include the provision and expansion of knowledge and skills of the solo parent on early childhood development, behavior management, health care, rights and duties of parents and children. It also provides Critical incidence stress debriefing which includes preventive stress management strategy designed to assist solo parents in coping with crisis situations and cases of abuse. Together these help the parent both to raise children well and to withstand the shocks, from sudden loss to abuse, that can overwhelm a single-parent household.
Protection for those in danger, and the current law
For families facing real danger, the package adds Special projects for individuals in need of protection which include temporary shelter, counseling, legal assistance, medical care, self-concept or ego-building, crisis management and spiritual enrichment. This is the safety net for a solo parent fleeing abuse or in acute crisis. One important update: Republic Act 8972 has since been superseded and broadened by the Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act, Republic Act 11861 (2022). A solo parent today should look to that later law and its implementing rules for the current, fuller set of services, though the core welfare package described here continues.