Economist Suggests Government To Increase The Number Of Social Assistance Recipients In 2022: Because The Number Of Poor People Will Potentially Increase

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Center of Reform on Economics (CORE) economist Yusuf Rendy advised the government to increase the number of recipients of social assistance (bansos) in 2022 to achieve the target of reducing extreme poverty and reducing inequality.

"The potential for an increase in the number of poor people due to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the third quarter is likely to occur. So the government needs to consider increasing the number of Beneficiary Families (KPM)", Yusuf said as quoted by Antara, Tuesday, August 24.

Yusuf also advised the government to make adjustments to the number of Pre-Employment Card recipients. According to him, similar to poverty, the potential for an increase in the number of unemployed is also large.

"If I'm not mistaken, I read in the RAPBN document that about 2.5 million people received Pre-Employment Cards. Even though there is the potential for the number of unemployed people to increase again, especially in the third quarter when the economy is experiencing a slowdown", he said.

In addition, he also highlighted the number of social protection budget outlooks in the 2022 RAPBN which actually decreased compared to 2021. In the draft, the government stated that the budget for social protection in 2022 was IDR 427.5 trillion, a decrease compared to 2021 which amounted to IDR 487.8 trillion.

According to him, the reduction in the budget amount is not in line with the government's target of eradicating extreme poverty and reducing inequality by 2022.

"In fact, the Country Economic Recovery (PEN) budget, especially social protection, is essential to help reduce poverty levels", he said.

President Joko Widodo in his speech delivering the State Budget Bill for Fiscal Year 2022 and the Financial Note last August 16, said the development targets in 2022, including the poverty rate in the range of 8.5-9.0 percent with an emphasis on reducing extreme poverty and the level of inequality in the Gini ratio in the range 0.376-0.378.