Desil Ranking Rises, 77 Elderly in Blitar City No Longer Receive PKH Plus Assistance

BLITAR, KOMPAS.com – A total of 77 elderly residents in Blitar City will no longer receive social assistance from the Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) Plus provided by the East Java Provincial Government during the third-quarter disbursement in September 2026.

They no longer qualify for assistance due to an increase in their desil ranking within the Data Tunggal Sosial dan Ekonomi Nasional (DTSEN) Version 3, which was released in early July 2026.

Eka Atikah, Head of the Social Services Office of Blitar City, explained that the PKH Plus recipients are targeted to be residents aged 70 and above who fall within desil rankings 1 to 4.

“There are 77 recipients removed from the PKH Plus beneficiary list this third quarter because their desil ranking rose above desil 4,” Eka said on Tuesday (15/9/2026).

PKH Plus is a social assistance program from the East Java Provincial Government targeting elderly citizens aged 70 and over who are within desil rankings 1 to 4.

The assistance consists of cash payments of Rp 500,000 to each beneficiary every three months.

According to Eka, the number of PKH Plus recipients in Blitar City was 467 in the second quarter of June 2026 but shrank to 399 in the third quarter of 2026.

Nevertheless, the Blitar City Government is not standing still. Eka claimed that the government has instructed PKH support staff to verify the accuracy of the desil rankings for the 77 elderly against their actual economic conditions.

If their increased desil ranking does not reflect their true situation, the PKH support staff have been asked to assist them in filing an appeal with the local Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

“If field verification shows they still need social assistance intervention, I have asked PKH volunteers to help with the appeals process,” she said.

So far, according to Eka, four of the 77 elderly removed from the PKH Plus recipient list have already submitted appeals to regain their assistance.

Eka added that the PKH support staff continue to reach out to other elderly residents to verify the accuracy of their desil rankings.