Jakarta's poor still line up for cash aid

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta office of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS Jakarta) has registered over 28,000 new families that may be eligible to benefit from the government's cash assistance program.

BPS Jakarta director Sunari Sarwono said over the weekend that his office would carry out door-to-door checks on 28,130 families to determine whether or not they were entitled to receive the cash assistance as they claimed.

"Only those who satisfy the set criteria will receive the cash payments," Sunari told reporters.

To ease the impact of last October's fuel price increases, the government introduced the cash-assistance scheme, under which poor families are entitled to receive Rp 100,000 (US$10.20) per month for a period of one year.

The government has set 14 criteria to be used as yardsticks in assessing whether a household is considered poor or not, including having a dirt floor in the house, only one meal per day, new clothes only once a year, no permanent job, and maximum spending on health services and education. If a family satisfies at least eight of the criteria, it will be entitled to receive the payments.

The government initially allocated sufficient money to pay 15 million people across the country, but the number of people claiming to be poor has continued to rise since the first disbursement was made last October.

Violent, in some cases even bloody, protests have often accompanied the disbursement of the assistance, prompting the government to reopen registration.

In Jakarta, some 101,000 families were initially slated to receive the assistance, but the number has continued to rise since the first day of disbursement.

It is not immediately clear where the government will get the money to pay those registering late as the House of Representatives (DPR) earmarked only enough money to pay 15 million people.

Sunari said his 250 strong force would verify the information supplied by the 28,000 newly registered families to determine whether or not they were eligible for the assistance. He said he hoped the verification process would be completed by Nov. 20.

"We hope we can start distributing Fuel Compensation Cards to those who are eligible early in December so that they can receive their money by the end of December," he said.

BPS Jakarta, in cooperation with command posts established by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab at the subdistrict level, launched an additional registration drive following complaints that it had missed tens of thousands of poor families during the first registration drive.

Over the weekend, Councillor Hizbiyah Rochim lamented the fact that BPS Jakarta had missed tens of thousands of poor families during the first round, thus depriving them of the assistance payments.

"We would advise the city administration to involve neighborhood unit heads as these know the circumstances of the people living around them better than officials from the BPS Jakarta," Hizbiyah said.