Jakarta. The continuous influx of visitors from other provinces seeking residency or job opportunities in Jakarta has incurred significant social spending costs for the city, revealed a city official on Tuesday.

Budi Awaluddin, head of the Jakarta Civil Registration Office, said many individuals are drawn to Jakarta due to the city's robust welfare system, which is considered the most generous in the country.

The provincial government provides a wide array of financial subsidies for low-income families, covering healthcare, education, transportation, food purchases, and utilities, Budi explained.

"That’s part of the reason why so many people have been drawn to Jakarta which generously spends Rp 17.18 trillion ($1 billion) in subsidies every year,” Budi disclosed during a forum group discussion held at the B-Universe Media Holdings office in Pantai Indah Kapuk 2, near Jakarta.

Monthly subsidies include up to Rp 450,000 for elementary or high school students, Rp 37,800 for health insurance, up to Rp 280,000 for food, Rp 300,000 for orphans, and Rp 300,000 for the elderly. Additionally, the city allocates Rp 9 million in subsidies for tuition fees for university students from low-income families, payable every semester.

Budi hinted that many new city dwellers are parasitic users of the city’s welfare system, noting that most of them lack specific job skills or adequate education levels, leading to an overreliance on Jakarta's welfare system.

"Over the past four years, 80 percent of new arrivals have been high school graduates or below, with a significant concentration in slum areas across Jakarta," Budi said.

The influx of migrants from other provinces has resulted in never-ending social problems for Jakarta, including a rising poverty rate, increased unemployment, the proliferation of slum areas, and escalated social costs for healthcare and education.

Furthermore, many Jakarta ID holders have refused to update their registered addresses despite relocating to other provinces, with the intention of continuing to benefit from the city's welfare system, Budi added.

"Jakarta ranks 30th among cities with the worst traffic in the world and has recently been labeled the most-polluted city globally," Budi lamented.

Restrictive Measures
To address these challenges, Budi outlined key measures aimed at restricting the influx of unskilled and uneducated migrants and ensuring that subsidies reach the intended beneficiaries.

The first measure involves requiring a minimum five-year residency period in Jakarta for low-income families to be eligible for the welfare system, a policy that has proven effective in Surabaya.

"We estimate annual savings of up to Rp 4 trillion with this policy," Budi said.

Additionally, collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs is underway to deregister Jakarta citizenship for those who no longer reside in the capital.

Job seekers from outside Jakarta must provide proof of employment and valid addresses for temporary residency, while a draft regulation is being developed to mandate a higher-than-high-school education level for inter-province migrants wishing to settle in Jakarta.

"Those with a high school education or below are advised not to relocate to Jakarta," Budi said.

Another proposed measure involves limiting the number of families residing at a single residential address to three, aimed at curbing subsidy costs in densely populated slum areas.

In many slum areas, a registered home address can comprise dozens of low-income families that cause a substantial subsidy cost, he said.

Despite these efforts, Jakarta continues to gain more people from inter-province migration than it loses, as many former residents retain their city IDs to access social benefits.

Budi showed a screenshot of local online news quoting a South Tangerang official who revealed that there are some 75,000 Jakarta ID holders living in the city in Banten province. In neighboring Depok, the number is estimated at 18,000.