Moving beyond stereotype: A qualitative study of long-standing recipients of the Indonesian conditional cash transfers (CCT/PKH)

This qualitative study explores the experiences and attitudes of welfare recipients towards Indonesia's conditional cash transfer (CCT/PKH) program. The specific objectives of our paper include examining the program's impact on impoverished families, their response to stereotyping, and the implications of stereotyping for government policy among Indonesian low-income families. We conducted twenty in-depth interviews with key stakeholders (program professionals, community leaders, program facilitators) and end-users (beneficiaries). Despite the attached stereotype, our findings show that not all beneficiaries with improved socioeconomic conditions wish to leave the program. In many cases, this occurs as beneficiaries use their CCT/PKH accounts as collateral to borrow from unregulated lenders and repay their debts. A few instances where we found self-voluntary withdrawal from the program were only caused by the shame of receiving stickers attached to their homes – not because of their social-economic status improvement – leading to difficulty affording their necessities afterwards. Overall, the finding that individuals, whether eligible or not, are not ashamed to claim PKH, despite the stigma attached to the program, contrasts with studies on welfare stigma, claiming that stigma can prevent individuals from claiming their welfare rights.