DKI Provincial Government Admits There Is No Clarity About Phase Seven Cash Social Assistance

Illustrations (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Many DKI residents question the continuation of the seventh phase of cash social assistance (BST) distribution from the government, considering that PPKM Level 4 is still ongoing.

However, the Assistant for People's Welfare (Kesra) of the DKI Jakarta Secretary, Suharti, admitted that the seventh stage of BST has not yet received certainty about the distribution time.

Suharti admitted that the central government, in this case the Ministry of Social Affairs, had not given any direction to local governments regarding the continuation of BST.

"There is no (certainty of the seventh stage of BST). If BST is a central decision, we follow the center. There is no (latest) regulation from the center yet," said Suharti to reporters, Saturday, August 21.

Suharti also did not want to explain further regarding the BST distribution plan, including the readiness of the DKI Provincial Government's budget for the social safety net.

"Now there is no discussion for it (cash social assistance). It doesn't need to be discussed first, yes," he said.

It is known, there are 1,844,833 beneficiary families (KPM) who received BST in Jakarta. Residents who receive BST are registered as recipients of the 2020 basic food social assistance as a result of updating and matching the DKI Jakarta Provincial Disdukcapil data.

BST recipients do not include recipients of social assistance programs for the family of hope (PKH) and/or non-cash food assistance (BPNT).

The last BST distributed was the fifth and sixth stages of Rp. 300 thousand per month in the period of May and June. This two-stage BST delivery was carried out at once, so that residents immediately received Rp600 thousand.

The DKI Provincial Government distributed BST to 1,007,379 recipients through Bank DKI ATMs. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Social Affairs distributed BST to 837,000 PT Pos Indonesia recipients.