PKH and Sembako Social Assistance Already Disbursed During Ramadan
Minister of Social Affairs Saifullah Yusuf, known as Gus Ipul, announced that social assistance under the Family Hope Programme (PKH) and Sembako food aid has been disbursed in stages. As of the start of Ramadan, first-quarter 2026 disbursement realisation has reached above 85 per cent, or more than Rp15 trillion.
For the Family Hope Programme (PKH), this year’s allocation has been set for 10 million beneficiary families (KPM). Meanwhile, Sembako food assistance has been allocated for 18,250,000 beneficiary families.
“PKH disbursement to date for the first quarter — January, February, March — has reached 8,940,958 beneficiary families. More than Rp6 trillion has been disbursed, or 89.4 per cent. Meanwhile, Sembako has been disbursed to more than 15 million beneficiary families totalling over Rp9 trillion, or 86.9 per cent,” said Gus Ipul in a written statement on Saturday (21/2/2026).
He explained that all social assistance disbursements are carried out through the Association of State Banks (Himbara) and Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI). Overall, Gus Ipul noted that there remain more than 1 million new PKH recipients and approximately 2 million new Sembako recipients identified through the updated National Social and Economic Unified Database (DTSEN) who have yet to receive their assistance. The disbursement process for these beneficiaries involves the opening of collective accounts (burekol), card distribution, and preparation for disbursement through PT Pos Indonesia.
“So, each quarter there are new beneficiaries from the DTSEN update, and most of them do not yet have bank accounts. That is why collective accounts need to be opened, and it takes one to two months for the process,” he explained.
Meanwhile, for PKH and Sembako social assistance in the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra, which were affected by disasters, the Ministry of Social Affairs has disbursed Rp1.8 trillion to 1.7 million beneficiary families. “All has been disbursed and, God willing, it will be completed by the end of February,” said Gus Ipul.
In addition to regular social assistance, the Ministry of Social Affairs has also prepared adaptive social assistance for post-disaster management, including logistical aid and public kitchens, bereavement and injury compensation, livelihood guarantees (Jadup), and economic recovery assistance for disaster-affected communities.
“The total budget we have proposed and prepared for adaptive social assistance is more than Rp2 trillion. Meanwhile, the total emergency budget has all been dispatched, nearly Rp100 billion. Today we have begun disbursing assistance for household contents, socio-economic recovery support, and livelihood guarantees,” explained Gus Ipul.
Bereavement compensation for heirs has been disbursed totalling Rp14.8 billion for 990 individuals at a rate of Rp15 million per person. Housing contents assistance of Rp98.7 billion is ready for disbursement to 32,900 household heads at Rp3 million per family. Meanwhile, livelihood guarantee assistance of Rp25.8 billion is ready for disbursement to 19,100 individuals at Rp15,000 per person.
Gus Ipul said the disbursement mechanism is carried out in stages, referencing a single national dataset from the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) as the initial reference. Based on this data, regional heads propose a list of victims by name and by address (BNBA), followed by the determination of a nominative list with approval from the regional leadership council (Muspida). This is then validated and approved by the Minister of Home Affairs in his capacity as Chair of the Task Force for Accelerated Post-Disaster Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.
The Ministry of Social Affairs then disburses the assistance based on the finalised and ratified data. “In essence, of the more than Rp2 trillion, disbursements already deposited in accounts and ready to be distributed amount to more than Rp600 billion. The remainder is still subject to our supplementary budget (ABT) submission,” concluded Gus Ipul.