Gov’t Increases Pre-Employment Card Funds to Rp20 Trillion Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

The pre-employment card program. (Photo by: Cabinet Secretariat)

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, the Government continues to strengthen the pre-employment card program.

According to Ministry of Finance’s Director General of Budget Askolani, an addition of 400,000 workers are set to become recipients of pre-employment card program this year, making it a total of 6 million workers from the previous 5.6 million workers under a collaboration scheme between the Government and Social Security Provider Body for Employment (BPJS Tenaga Kerja).

“As many as 400 thousand laid-off workers will be assisted under a scheme provided by BPJS Tenaga Kerja, aside from the 5.6 million workers under the Government’s pre-employment card program,” Askolani said during a dialog program entitled “Social Assistance Amid COVID-19 Pandemic” through a Video Conference on Wednesday (8/4) in Jakarta.

The Government, he added, has also increased funds allocated for the pre-employment card program to Rp20 trillion from the initial budget of Rp10 trillion with Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs acting as the implementing management or the Project Management Office (PMO).

In the meantime, pre-employment card holders will undergo a four-month training and will receive Rp3.5 million, which includes Rp1 million for online training, Rp2.4 million for incentive funds and Rp150,000 for survey funds, he added.

“Incentive and survey funds will be given after the program ends. The survey is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the training,” Askolani said.

For the record, the pre-employment card holders among others are job seekers, including informal and formal workers as well as business players affected by the COVID-19 outbreak with a minimum age of 18 years.

To obtain the pre-employment card, participants should submit data online prepared by the PMO. Afterwards, the data will be verified and the incentives will be launched and carried out by the PMO.

In addition, workers who have participated in the BPJS Tenaga Kerja program and affected by layoffs will also be assisted by BPJS-Tenaga Kerja.

The program is part of the Government’s social assistance and aimed at maintaining people’s purchasing power to make ends meet amid COVID-19 outbreak. (Ministry of Finance’s Public Relations/EN)

Translator: Muhardi
Reviewed by: M. Ersan Pamungkas