Deputy Social Affairs Minister emphasises role of regional social services offices in PBI JKN reactivation

Jakarta (ANTARA) — Deputy Social Affairs Minister (Wamensos) Agus Jabo Priyono has emphasised the role of regional Social Services offices (Dinas Sosial) as the spearhead of social protection data updating, during an audience with seven local governments at the Ministry of Social Affairs office in Jakarta on Monday.

The audience was attended by representatives from the district governments of South Buton, North Buton, North Konawe, Konawe, Wakatobi, East Kolaka, and Jayawijaya.

The meeting discussed the updating of the National Socio-Economic Unified Data (DTSEN) and the membership status of National Health Insurance Contribution Assistance Recipients (PBI JKN).

Wamensos Agus affirmed that social data updating is a national mandate that must be driven from the regional level down to villages, so that data becomes increasingly accurate and social assistance and health insurance reach the right beneficiaries.

The Ministry of Social Affairs, through more than 30,000 Family Hope Programme (PKH) facilitators and Central Statistics Agency (BPS) teams, is currently conducting field verification of 11 million PBI JKN participants whose memberships have been deactivated.

The verification aims to ascertain the actual socio-economic conditions of participants, whilst also serving as the basis for adjusting membership status based on DTSEN data.

According to Agus, the reactivation process can currently be submitted through Social Services offices or village governments for verification in accordance with the applicable provisions. Likewise, local governments may also propose the reinstatement of deactivated PBI JKN memberships provided the criteria are met.

“Regions can propose through the Social Services office or village level, and it will be processed because we have indeed been instructed by the President to honour the dignity of the poor,” he said.

As of the first week of February, the Ministry of Social Affairs recorded that more than 40,000 BPJS participants in the PBI JKN segment whose memberships had previously been deactivated had already applied for reactivation.