Ministry Of Social Affairs Continues Social Assistance Program To Protect The Community

Social Minister Tri Rismaharini/DOK ANTARA

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Social Affairs continues to provide social assistance for communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with a budget of IDR 78.25 trillion in 2022. This budget has been approved by the House of Representatives.

Minister of Social Affairs, Tri Rismaharini, ensured that the government would not stop aid to the underprivileged people affected by the pandemic.

“Social assistance for the poor and vulnerable continues. Next year, the Ministry of Social Affairs has budgeted IDR 74.08 trillion or 94.67 percent of the total budget for social assistance. So, it is not true that the Ministry of Social Affairs stopped the social assistance program", Risma said as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, September 22.

The social assistance program managed by the Ministry of Social Affairs consists of regular social assistance and special social assistance. Regular social assistance is designed to support government policies in accelerating poverty alleviation. The regular social assistance programs are the Family Hope Program (PKH) and Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT)/Sembako Cards.

"PKH and BPNT continue to run, whether there is a pandemic or not because they are for handling poverty and improving the quality of human resources", said Risma.

While special social assistance has different characteristics. The existing special social assistance managed by the Ministry of Social Affairs is Cash Social Assistance (BST).

Risma said BST was designed for emergencies, not for permanent purposes. BST was launched by the government about the policy for the Enforcement of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) in line with the high rate of transmission of the Coronavirus at that time.

Activity restrictions have an impact on decreasing economic activity and reducing people's income. "Therefore, the government needs to assist affected residents. In line with the decline in the number of virus transmissions, the government has also relaxed activities, the economy is moving and people can return to productivity", said Risma.

Risma ensures that the poor and vulnerable remain the focus of the Ministry of Social's attention. He invited the community to report themselves to the relevant local government apparatus, such as the social service, village, or RT/RW (Citizens Association) if they felt they deserved assistance.

In addition, you can take advantage of the "propose" and "rebut" features on the Cekbansos site. With these two features, people can register themselves to be considered for their eligibility to receive social assistance.

To reach assistance for communities affected by the pandemic, the Ministry of Social Affairs has allocated BPNT (Non-Cash Food Aid) PPKM assistance to 5.9 million KPM (Beneficiary Family) with a budget of IDR 7.08 trillion. The allocation of 5.9 million KPM recipients of BPNT social assistance is a proposal from the regions.

“It is possible to enter as a participant in the BPNT/Sembako Program. However, the index is IDR 200,000", she said.

In this regard, the Minister of Social Affairs reiterated that local governments have a major role in ensuring that aid is right on target.