Responding to the Findings of DEN 2025, the Ministry of Social Affairs is Improving All Data of Social Assistance Recipients Including the Elderly

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos) has ensured a thorough improvement to the system for data collection on social assistance (bansos) beneficiaries following findings from the National Economic Council (DEN) 2025 which indicate that there are still many that are not targeted.

The Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos) Saifullah Yusuf said that the evaluation was one of the fundamental reasons for the government to consolidate data collection based on the National Socio-Economic Single Data (DTSEN) so that the distribution of social assistance is more accurate.

"What I am most touched by President Prabowo is his invitation to us, especially to me, let's start this work by presenting honest data. We admit the data as it is, we are honest, open, then we improve," said Saifullah in his statement in Jakarta, Sunday, May 31, quoted by Antara.

Saifullah explained that the DEN reported that the findings of the problem, one of which was social assistance for the Family Hope Program (PKH). In 2025, there were 45 percent of the total number of beneficiaries who were not targeted or should no longer be on the list of recipients.

"Around 45 percent of PKH recipients are suspected of no longer meeting the criteria as beneficiaries," he said.

Kemensos believes that the constraints are due to the dynamics of data validity at the central level, not the negligence of PKH companions who have been tasked with overseeing the program at the grassroots level.

To unravel the tangled thread of bureaucracy of the data, Saifullah added that President Prabowo Subianto had assigned the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) as the authority holder for the management of DTSEN with the support of periodic updates from the Ministry of Social Affairs and local governments.

He admitted that he was optimistic that with the finalization of the DTSEN which involved cross-sector collaboration starting at the RT level, village deliberations, to the level of central ministries and institutions, the distribution of assistance would be more targeted.

This is as it was done to tidy up the provision of health insurance assistance for the elderly cluster in East Nusa Tenggara.

BPS reported that 91.11 percent of the 379,592 elderly in NTT who were recorded as poor or in the 1-4 DTSEN desil group had been registered as BPJS Health participants in the National Health Insurance Premium Assistance (PBI JKN) cluster.