Report to welfare dept every three months to avoid losing access to assistance

KOTA KINABALU - Recipients of welfare assistance are advised to report themselves every three months to the Sabah Social Welfare Department (JPKA) to avoid falling out of the application system.

State Community Development and People's Wellbeing Minister Datuk Ir Shahelmey Yahya said the department has a system that automatically updates the recipient's data.

He said the system was updated in 2017 taking into account reprimands from the National Audit Department especially on the reporting period by the aid recipients.

"Before being reprimanded by the audit department, JPKA practised six months (reporting) and was advised to shorten it to only one month. JPKA took the middle ground for three months to defuse the anger of the recipients.

"As a control measure to prevent leakage or overpayment to ineligible or deceased recipients, all recipients are required to report to their respective district welfare offices once every three months where JPKA officers will record the recipient's attendance in the system and activate the assistance for another three months.

"If they fail to report within three months, the system will automatically take out the recipient's name regardless of whether the recipient still needs assistance or not,” he said in response to Datuk Mohd Arsad Bistari's (BN-Tempasuk) question at the Sabah State Legislative Assembly session on Monday.

The question posed was related to the ministry’s initiative to update the application system for welfare assistance, especially for the elderly, single mothers and persons with disabilities (PwD), since there were some whose names were already taken out of the system while they still needed help from the government.

Responding to Jannie Lasimbang's (DAP-Kapayan) additional question on how the aid recipients who came from remote areas report every three months, Shahelmey said, it could be done by a representative or online.

"The process to inform within three months is to ensure that there is no overpayment to eligible recipients.

"For example, when the recipient has passed away, for the purpose of such notification, it is sufficient for the recipient's legal representative to connect with the district welfare office, not physically, online is also accepted.

"The aim is to ensure that there is no miscalculation in the support provided by the government. I would like to share the information here, based on the reprimands from the National Audit Department until Sept 2022, we still have cases of overpayment to a total of 61 people.

“Therefore, this notification system is implemented to ensure that there are no overpayments," he said.