TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Aid program remains vague
President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo has launched his signature Productive Family welfare program to help cushion the blow of the expected plan to raise fuel prices
Change Size
President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo has launched his signature Productive Family welfare program to help cushion the blow of the expected plan to raise fuel prices.
The launch of the program on Monday was marked by the distribution of four cards ' a cellular phone SIM card to facilitate electronic money transfers, the Prosperous Family Card (KKS), the Healthy Indonesia Card (KIS) and the Smart Indonesia Card (KIP) ' at five post offices in Jakarta.
The government plans to distribute the cards to 15.5 million low-income families.
For the initial phase, the KKS will be distributed to 1 million families along with the KIP to 157,943 schoolchildren and the KIS to 4.45 million people, all of whom are included in the 1 million families.
'The program is to maintain people's purchasing power and obviously to provide health care and education services,' Jokowi, who was inaugurated as the country's seventh president on Oct. 20, told reporters at Pasar Baru Post Office in Central Jakarta.
President Jokowi has pledged to reform Indonesia's burdensome and poorly targeted fuel subsidies, which are expected to cost Rp 276 trillion (US$22.7 billion) next year, equal to 15 percent of total state spending.
In the expected fuel-subsidy cuts this month, the price of premium gasoline is likely to increase by
Rp 3,000 per liter from the current price of Rp 6,500.
- Family-welfare program to mitigate fuel price rises launched in five Jakarta post offices
- New card part of a combination of new welfare programs but details remain sketchy
Of all the welfare cards, however, the cash-aid program to compensate for the upcoming fuel price hike, the KKS, is the most clear-cut in its disbursement.
The spokesperson for the government-sanctioned National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), Regi Wahono, said the government, through the KKS, would disburse Rp 6.2 trillion, which was derived from the social-assistance funds in the Social Affairs Ministry, to the 15.5 million low-income families during the initial phase.
'Each family will receive an assistance fund of Rp 400,000 in November and December,' he said.
Regi added that the KIS would use the budget of the Social Security Management Agency (BPJS), while the KIP would utilize the budget of the Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry.
But details of the KIP and KIS programs are still vague.
Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Anies Baswedan said the KIP was not intended to replace similar programs already run by regional administrations.
'The programs run by local administrations will have no relation to the KIP. We do not want to see those receiving the KIP excluded from receiving funding from local [government],' he told reporters.
The government has distributed the cards to replace former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Social Protection Card (KPS) program, which also included various forms of assistance including cash aid.
Many of the card recipients on Monday said they were happy with the program but seemed unsure of the details. Some of them for example had also registered with the National Health Insurance's (JKN) scheme for the poor, once known as Jamkesmas.
Tulud Rachman Hadi said he did not know the difference between the Jamkesmas card that he had and the new KIS card. 'Maybe it's for medical treatment,' he said, while showing a green card, the KIS card, to The Jakarta Post, adding that he had received no explanation about the KIS health card.
Maria Magdalena, a single mother of three children who works as a merchant, said that she did not know the difference between the Productive Family Program and the previous assistance program. 'I only received an invitation from the post office on Sunday. I am still clueless,' she said.
Similar cash-aid programs to KKS were launched under the names direct cash assistance (BLT) and temporary direct cash assistance (BLSM) by Yudhoyono.
The BLT program, for instance, was launched by the government in 2008 when fuel prices were raised due to skyrocketing global crude oil prices.
Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said the new welfare programs would mean people in the category of homeless or internally-displaced (PMKS) would be eligible for government support.
'Those in the category of having social welfare issues were previously ineligible to receive social-assistance funds. In the future, [we can see] children in social institutions, the elderly in nursing homes, receiving the funds too,' she said. (ask)
