Social Minister Risma Encourages Elderly To Stay At Home, Funded By BPJS Employment

Social Minister Tri Rismaharini. (Antara-Aprionis).

JAKARTA - Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos) Tri Rismaharini has pushed for the Social Security Administrator (BPJS) for Employment financing scheme to deal with the problem of single elderly (elderly) who do not live in the hall.

"We will handle it intensively because it is not easy and cheap, because there is no nurse. We will handle it in detail," said Tri Rismaharini when delivering a speech at the 2022 National Elderly Day (HLUN) at Singaparna Medika Citrautama Hospital, Tasikmalaya, West Java, Sunday 29 May.

Risma said that the allocation of funding to tackle social problems for the elderly is not cheap. However, the allocation is expected to cover the need for health checks and midwife assistance.

In fact, continued Risma, the establishment of an elderly center to subsidize the daily needs of the elderly beneficiaries.

"Not all the elderly want to live in the hall. If they stay at home, who cooks and who does activities. Usually we take them to the hall. If we can, we help with the food from the hall with the help of the local Neighhborhood Unit Heads," she said, as reported by Antara.

To that end, the Ministry of Social Affairs encourages the holding of the Elderly Integrated Assistance Post (Posbindu) Program which is spread evenly to all corners of Indonesia.

"But we have to talk to the Ministry of National Development Planning of the Republic of Indonesia / the National Development Planning Agency (Kemen PPN / Bappenas) and the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) how to handle this," she said.

The Ministry of Social Affairs' efforts to help overcome the problem of single elderly people have begun by eliminating the use of electricity in collaboration with PT PLN. "For electricity, we cooperate with PLN, the tariff is zero," she said.

In addition, the government also provides two assistance packages for the elderly, including direct cash assistance and social assistance in the form of basic necessities. "The reason is that there is no one to take care of it and the food depends on what neighbors give them. Even if they have money, they can't cook and buy it," she said.

Single elderly is a condition where people with an age range of 65 years and over are neglected because they are left by their families and live alone.

Based on a report from the Ministry of Social Affairs, single elderly people in Tasikmalaya Regency, West Java, are the largest in Indonesia, amounting to around 28.000 people.

Apart from economic limitations, said Risma, single elderly people in Tasikmalaya are also triggered by the relatively high life expectancy. "There is one who is 90 years old and not one person is over the age of 90," she said.

On that basis, Social Minister Risma has designated Tasikmalaya as the location for the 2022 National Elderly Day (HLUN) commemoration today.

Referring to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2021, there are 29.3 million elderly people in Indonesia, equivalent to 10.82 percent of the total population. As many as 43.29 percent of the elderly come from households with the lowest 40 percent of the expenditure group.