Lack Cash Social Assistance In The Capital City: Wrong Target Until Nominal Cut

Illustration / cash assistance collection (Pemprov DKI)

JAKARTA - The Social Protection Reform Coalition found that the distribution of cash social assistance (BST) or direct cash assistance (BLT) in DKI Jakarta is still not on target.

Secretary-General of the Indonesian People's Struggle Union (SPRI), Dika Moehammad, said that from January to February 2021, there were 1,134 urban poor citizens who had not received BST.

"The occupations of residents who do not get BST include freelance workers, factory workers, pelvic workers, washing workers, peelers, garbage men, mobile coffee sellers, honorary teachers, retail gasoline sellers, fried food traders, and so on", said Dika in his statement, Wednesday, February 17th.

The coalition also found that many BST recipients were families with relatively well-off social and economic conditions. Among them, they own cars, rented houses, and even shoe stores.

"Even though the rich family never registered for BST", he said.

Furthermore, the coalition found that there was a mode of extortion in the form of a nominal deduction of social assistance. The methods range from thank you money, administrative deductions from Citizens Association (RW) for the construction of RW posts, buying an ambulance, to building places of worship.

"The BST cuts occurred in 9 urban villages. Most of the victims were afraid to report", he said.

The next finding is that there are still some family heads who cannot withdraw BST because of the lack of documents that must be submitted. In addition, there are still families who receive two different types of assistance such as the Hope Family Program (PKH) who also receive BST.

"As many as 76.8 recipients felt the BST was not sufficient for their family's needs. Then, 80.4 percent said the BST funds were used up for two days to one week", said Dika.

For information, BST is social protection assistance for affected communities. BST will only be implemented in DKI Jakarta in 2021 with a nominal grant of IDR 300 thousand for 4 periods or 4 months.

The nominal value and period for receiving BST will follow central government regulations. There are 2 types of BST distribution methods, namely through DKI Bank and PT Indonesian post. The number of BST recipients was 1,055,216 people.