Eligibility cardholders to be evaluated each quarter

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration plans to periodically evaluate whether the recipients of cash assistance from the central government are still eligible for the facility.

The cash assistance was set up to offset the effects of the Oct. 1 fuel price increases.

"After three months, we need to evaluate whether or not the fuel compensation cardholders still meet the set criteria. Otherwise, they are not entitled to the cash payments," Jakarta Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo said over the weekend.

He used as an example poor families who received financial assistance from relatives outside the family unit.

Among 14 criteria used as yardsticks to measure whether a household is deemed poor are the family's daily income and expenditure on health services, food and clothing.

If a family meets at least eight of the criteria, then it is entitled to receive Rp 100,000 monthly, distributed every three months.

The first disbursement of the fund was for the October to December period. The second disbursement is expected to be carried out early next year.

State mail company PT Posindo will be in charge of the cash payments.

Fauzi added the periodical evaluation was also needed in the case of families who had not initially been eligible but whose breadwinner lost their job due to cutbacks resulting from the fuel price increases.

"In principle, we have to make sure that only those poor families will enjoy the cash payments," he emphasized.

The Jakarta Statistics Agency (BPS Jakarta) said it had first registered 101,219 poor households, or 444,527 residents across the city.

However, it had since discovered the wrongful issuance of some cards, which it would withdraw and destroy.

"We have to drop some names from the list of recipients -- although they claim they are poor -- since it was found out that they failed to meet the required criteria," BPS Jakarta head Sunari Sarwono said.

He said that as of last week, it had canceled the payments of at least 3,263 residents registered as recipients of the program, or 3.49 percent.

It has also withdrawn 276 cards for reasons ranging from incorrect information on the printed cards (23 cards), recipients not found (94 cards), recipients having moved to unknown places (nine cards) and other reasons (150 cards).

"We will destroy the withdrawn cards to prevent any misuse of them," he added.

He said his agency was verifying the status of 5,222 poor families who had not been registered as fuel compensation card recipients during the initial registration dragnet held weeks before the fuel price increases.

"They will immediately receive the cash payments as long as they fulfill most of the 14 poverty criteria," he emphasized.