The Ministry of Home Affairs and Social Affairs plans to make PKH recipients employees of the Red and White Kopdes.

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Cooperatives (Kemenkop) together with the Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos) plans to open employment opportunities for 15-18 people from the Social Assistance Beneficiary Families (KPM), especially the Hope Family Program (PKH), to work as employees at the Red and White Village / Village Cooperative (KDKMP).

Minister of Cooperatives (Menkop) Ferry Juliantono explained that this step is a strategy to optimize community empowerment, especially from the desil 1 community and beyond.

The plan to open employment opportunities at KDKMP for social assistance recipients such as PKH is a follow-up to President's Instruction (Inpres) Prabowo Subianto number 8 of 2025 regarding the Optimization of the Implementation of Poverty Alleviation and the Elimination of Extreme Poverty.

"Today we talked about how PKH recipients become managers or work in Village Cooperatives. The hope is that each cooperative can open up opportunities for around 15-18 people from the beneficiary families from each village," said Ferry, quoted Tuesday, April 14.

With this scheme, continued Ferry, the Ministry of Cooperatives, SMEs, and Entrepreneurship estimates that almost 1.4 million PKH recipients can be absorbed as workers in village cooperatives.

This is based on the assumption that 83,000 KDKMP spread throughout Indonesia operate by absorbing labor between 15-18 people from the PKH family.

Ferry emphasized that this step can also help PKH beneficiary families to get out of the extreme poor category.

Therefore, the Ministry of Home Affairs will immediately issue special rules to make it easier for recipients from the PKH beneficiary families to become employees at KDKMP.

He also explained that the Ministry of Cooperatives, Industry, and Entrepreneurship would also issue new rules related to the burden of obligations of KDKMP members from the PKH beneficiary families to be lighter. The reason is that in the cooperative there is a provision to pay mandatory dues, principal dues and voluntary dues.

"This legal umbrella is important so that the beneficiaries are not burdened with membership fees. We want them to be independent, not just dependent on social assistance," he said.

Ferry added that by entering the PKH beneficiary family as members of the cooperative and as employees, their income levels are expected to be better.

Another benefit is that at the end of each year, the PKH beneficiary families can receive the remaining business results (SHU).

"This SHU will be a significant additional income for the beneficiary families. With SHU, they can get out of desil 1 and get a class," said Ferry.

As an effort to implement all of these big ideas, the Ministry of Home Affairs will conduct a more in-depth discussion with the Ministry of Social Affairs, including integrating the data of PKH beneficiary families.

"This data will be used to determine who are the recipients of PKH who are eligible to work in the Village Cooperative," he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Cooperatives (Wamenkop) Farida Farichah added that the recruitment of 15-18 workers per KDKMP is being finalized.

The positions needed include drivers, security guards, and warehouse guards.

He emphasized the importance of integration with the data of the Ministry of Social Affairs, especially the beneficiaries of desil 1-4.

That way, the workforce recruited is really according to the needs.

"The concept belongs to residents and villages, so the workforce is prioritized from the local domicile," he explained.

Social Minister Syaifullah Yusuf said that currently there are around 8 million beneficiaries of the Ministry of Social Affairs who will be encouraged to become members of the KDKMP.

Of that number, not all of them were recruited to become KDKMP employees but all of them were encouraged to become members.

"To become employees at the Village Cooperative, priority is given to the productive age according to the capacity and ability of the beneficiaries. We will map the beneficiaries' families and then we will train the workforce," said the Ministry of Social Affairs, Saifullah Yusuf.

The Minister of Social Affairs, Saifullah Yusuf, emphasized that the KDKMP is the right economic institution for community empowerment, especially from the PKH KPM. He is optimistic that this collaboration between the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Social Affairs will accelerate poverty alleviation.

"With this cooperation, we can measure how many PKH recipients have managed to become self-sufficient families and come out of extreme poverty," he said.