Distribution of cards complete, 90% receive cash payments

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Statistics Agency (BPS Jakarta) revealed on Tuesday that it had completed the distribution of the Fuel Compensation Cards (KKB) to 96,541 poor households across the capital.

As of Tuesday, over than 90 percent of the cardholders had received the cash payments -- Rp 300,000 for each family for the three months from October through December, the agency's director Sunari Sarwono told reporters at City Hall.

He said that the number of entitled recipients was less than the initial figure of 101,219 households as his officials had found that 4,315 families failed to meet most of the 14 criteria required by the government before the classification of a family as poor.

It had also failed to distribute 363 cards for various reasons, including damage to the cards and inaccurate data.

"We have withdrawn all these cards and will destroy them immediately," he said.

Housing characteristics, including access to toilets, clean water and electricity, and expenditure on healthcare, food, clothing and education, are among the yardsticks employed to access whether a family is entitled to receive the cash payment. A family that satisfies at least eight of the criteria will be certified as entitled.

"Currently, we are awaiting new data from the complaint centers being set up by the coordinating minister for people's welfare (Alwi Shihab) at the subdistrict level about poor families overlooked in the recent registration drive," Sunari added.

Alwi said that the posts were being established to record the details of indigent families that had not been registered by the BPS during the first round of the drive. The posts would also forward the required documents on the families to the BPS, which would follow this up with verification of the validity of the documents. In addition, the centers were tasked with receiving complaints from indigent families about the operation of the scheme.

As of Tuesday, 6,702 families had lodged objections to their exclusion from the cash aid program.

The BPS said that it was hoping to complete the second round of verification and distribution of the cards by the end of November.

"The additional cardholders will be able to enjoy the cash payments for the October-December period early in December," Sunari said.

The cash aid program will last for one year.