Securing benefit programs with digital ID in Indonesia, Brazil, India

Indonesia will use its digital identity system to onboard and verify beneficiaries of the state social protection program, Perlinsos. The two systems will be linked starting from August 17th this year.

Perlinsos will obtain data on beneficiaries from the digital population identity (Identitas Kependudukan Digital – IKD) system under Dukcapil, the government agency responsible for managing and maintaining the country’s population and civil registration data. A successful integration could pave the way for the government to connect the ID system to other services, including education, healthcare and population administration, boosting the country’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) development.

The integration with Perlinsos will ensure that only eligible citizens receive funds, according to Dukcapil’s Director-General, Teguh Setyabudi.

“If the Perlinsos data is integrated into the DPI, government social policies will be easier to implement,” Setyabudi said last week during a roundtable organized by news publication GovInsider and Entrust in Jakarta.

Data exchange will be performed through the API of the Government Service Liaison System (SPLP), managed by the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi). Indonesian government agencies can access population data services for free, while profit-oriented private entities must pay a fee.

Dukcapil is currently going through digitalization efforts, with officials hoping to increase the uptake of the country’s digital identity.

Brazil introduces biometric ID verification for benefits

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a decree on Wednesday mandating the use of biometric identity verification for accessing social benefits.

The federal requirement will be implemented with the help of the state-owned Federal Savings Bank (Caixa Econômica Federal), also known as CEF. The bank will collect biometric data for the Civil Identification Number (CIN) thanks to its large presence across the country. CEF already holds biometrics of over 90 percent of the program’s beneficiaries, according to Ti Inside.

The measure will be implemented gradually, with exceptions for people over 80 years of age and those with mobility issues.

“We must advance digitalization, but we cannot exclude people,” says Rogério Mascarenhas, secretary of Digital Government at the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services (MGI). “Until we have a comprehensive ID card registry, this orchestration of databases will guarantee access to rights.”

The Brazilian government has also opened a public consultation on the country’s upcoming data governance and sharing policy, inviting stakeholders to contribute feedback by August 7th.

Delhi introducing digital ID for beneficiary recipients

India’s capital of Delhi plans to introduce digital ID cards for people with disabilities to ensure aid is delivered to eligible beneficiaries.

Some benefit schemes had been misused earlier with “serious irregularities” recorded in the window pension program during the previous administration, Chief Minister of Delhi Rekha Gupta said on Monday. The Minister has also ordered a review of all existing welfare schemes to remove persons who are not eligible, Times of India reports.

India has been implementing digital initiatives to streamline pension verification and welfare benefit distribution, including the digital life certificate system and the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) program, both of which are based on its biometric-based national ID system, the Aadhaar.

South African social security agency faces criticism

The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) in the city of Benoni is facing criticism due to a poorly executed system meant to flag beneficiaries for verification.

The agency, responsible for distributing social grants to more than 16 million South Africans, introduced a so-called “fourth payment date” to identify people whose grants need to be checked. When someone gets this later payment date, it’s supposed to be a warning that they must go to a SASSA office for fingerprint verification or they could lose their grant.

The agency, however, seems to have failed to explain the new system to its beneficiaries. Even worse, beneficiaries were not informed of the correct procedure, with some users making multiple trips to the office. The process requires both manual paperwork and electronic checks for each person, increasing the workload for SASSA’s 21 employees in Benoni.

The details of the issue were revealed after an oversight visit from the Democratic Alliance (DA) this week, according to Polity.org.za.

SASSA ntroduced changes to ID verification for some categories of social grant beneficiaries in May. The agency has also announced it will tighten its ID verification rules in the wake of growing fraud.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Brazil  |  digital ID  |  fraud prevention  |  government services  |  identity verification  |  India  |  Indonesia  |  social protection  |  South Africa