The study, which virtually surveyed 120 people with disabilities living in Jakarta from Oct. 14 to Oct. 20, found that 74 percent of respondents had been impacted by the ongoing pandemic.

Of those affected by the health and economic crisis, 42 percent earned less than Rp 1 million (US$70.76) monthly, according to the study, which involved the Association of Indonesian Women with Disabilities (HWDI) and the Association of Indonesian People with Disability (PPID), among others.

ICW researcher Dewi Anggraeni said during a webinar on Tuesday that 32 percent of respondents were not registered as recipients of the central government’s social aid, despite being among the most vulnerable to financial woes given that they earned an average of less than Rp 1 million per month.

The quality and quantity of the aid, Dewi said, had also been a source of discontent among people with disabilities, as the items were ill-suited to their needs.

“Twenty-five percent of respondents found that the quality and quantity of social aid was not up to the quality and quantity previously promised [by the government],” she said, adding that 33 percent of respondents said the aid received had failed to fulfill their daily needs over the course of the pandemic.

She urged the government to consider adjusting the form and quantity of social aid to meet the needs of differently-abled people, noting that financial support was preferable to packages of daily supplies of questionable quality.

“Without proper record-keeping, how can we ever determine whether the social aid meets the needs of the recipients?” Dewi asked.

The ICW suggested that the government establish an official integrated channel – such as a specialized mobile app – through which people with disabilities could file complaints about the distribution of COVID-19 social aid because the existing platforms were inadequate.

In recent months, persistent issues of data reliability have complicated efforts to equitably distribute COVID-19 social aid to citizens bearing the brunt of the pandemic in Jakarta and other regions.

A study published by the SMERU Research Institute conducted between late April and mid-May in five cities and regencies of the country found instances where government social assistance ended up in the wrong hands.

Jakarta began its social assistance program on April 9, not long after the city reported its first COVID-19 cases. The capital committed to support the 2.2 million households most affected by the outbreak. The program, which will continue to disburse monthly aid until December, involves the central government, which has committed to supporting the majority of potential recipients, roughly 1.3 million people.

Pepen Nazarudin, the Social Affairs Ministry’s director general for social empowerment, said the number of recipients was fixed and could not be changed. He said it was the city administration’s responsibility to determine which recipients should be prioritized.

Early on in the program, the lack of reliable recipient data caused a number of logistical problems, including mistargeted aid, which Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan complained about in April.

After four months of running the program, the city has seen improvements in its services, although shortcomings remain.

Jakarta still has the most cases of any region and recorded 1,058 new infections on Tuesday, bringing the city’s cumulative tally to 137,919.