Cooking oil cash assistance has been distributed to 83,845 beneficiaries or 98.26 percent of the 85,328 targeted families in Surabaya City, East Java Province, an official has informed.
Of the people deemed eligible for the assistance, some died or moved away, but this was not reported to the village government; therefore, some of the allocated aid could not be distributed, Head of the Social Office of Surabaya Anna Fajriatin said here on Friday.
State-owned postal company PT Pos Indonesia, which has been tasked with distributing the assistance, is aiming to finish the distribution process before Eid al-Fitr, she affirmed.
With the help of village officials, officers from PT Pos will deliver the cash assistance directly to beneficiaries who cannot come to the post office.
"This continues to be distributed by officers of PT Pos. So those who can't come to the post office will be visited by the post office officers together with village officials," she informed.
As per the Ministry of Social Affairs' standard operating procedure, the distribution of cooking oil cash assistance must be carried out until April 18, 2022, Fajriatin said. After that, there will be 14 working days for completing the distribution of the assistance.
"Those 14 days is the period when they (officers) have to go to people's homes. For example, if there is a beneficiary who is sick, they will visit them at the hospital," the official said.
According to her, this step has been taken to ensure that the assistance is received directly by the beneficiaries.
During the 14-day window, the Social Office of Surabaya city will also conduct data synchronization with village governments in the city on beneficiaries who have received the assistance, she added.
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The cooking oil cash assistance is President Joko Widodo's policy to reduce people's spending in the midst of rising prices, including for cooking oil, in the month of Ramadan.
Cooking oil cash assistance of Rp100 thousand is being provided to each beneficiary for the months of April, May, and June 2022 as a one-time payment of Rp300 thousand in April. It is being distributed in cash through PT Pos Indonesia.
The program is targeting as many as 20.65 million beneficiaries nationally, comprising 18.8 million beneficiaries recorded as recipients of the non-cash food assistance (BPNT) and 1.85 million beneficiaries registered as recipients of the Family Hope Program (PKH) who have not been registered as BPNT recipients.
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