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View all search resultsLawmakers to stop receiving housing allowance in November
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Protesters are blocked by police with shields during a demonstration outside the House of Representatives in Jakarta on Aug. 25, 2025. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba)
U
nder pressure from the public, the House of Representatives has clarified that lawmakers will only receive the controversial Rp 50 million (US$3,065) monthly housing allowance until October, but critics have called for transparency over the policy, insisting that it is still a waste of public money.
Public anger has grown after reports revealed that all 580 lawmakers have been receiving a Rp 50 million housing allowance per month since last October, roughly 10 times Jakarta’s minimum wage and 20 times the minimum in poorer regions. That perk comes on top of base salary and other benefits, which together can amount to Rp 230 million per month.
House Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said on Tuesday that the newly introduced housing allowance was not a permanent monthly perk and that each lawmaker received it only in their first year in office to cover the cost of renting a house for their full five-year term.
“The allowance is given monthly from October last year until October of this year, totaling Rp 600 million. This is to be used to rent accommodation for five years. Starting this November, there will be no more monthly housing allowance,” said Dasco, a politician from President Prabowo Subianto’s Gerindra Party.
The housing allowance, introduced in September last year through a letter signed by the House’s secretary-general, replaced access to official residences in the Kalibata housing complex in South Jakarta, which have been handed back to the government because many of the houses are no longer habitable.
“There were not enough funds to spend all at once on a housing allowance. That’s why the payment is spread out over 12 months, but the purpose is to pay for housing for the whole five years,” Dasco said.
Dasco’s clarification came a day after hundreds of people demonstrated outside the House complex in Central Jakarta on Monday denouncing the allowance as "excessive" and “insensitive” while many Indonesians continue to struggle with soaring living costs.
