Yaqoob Andayesh, Deputy Minister of Welfare of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, announced that the lack of information registration does not mean removal from the coupon scheme following the start of the self-declaration process to assess the economic status of households and increase the value of the coupon. These statements come at a time when about 40 million people have referred to the system to register their information, and some of them have faced issues in this process.
Increase in electronic coupon value
The value of the electronic coupon, which was promised earlier from mid-October, was first implemented for households covered by support organizations, and the value for these households was increased from one million tomans to one million and five hundred thousand tomans. On October 18, Yaqoob Andayesh announced a 500,000 toman increase in the coupon value for about 11 million beneficiaries of the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee and the Welfare Organization, adding that the accounts of these individuals have been credited.
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Challenges and ambiguities of self-declaration
However, the self-declaration process and the sending of informational text messages to beneficiaries have been accompanied by ambiguities. Hassan Noorouzi, head of the Targeted Subsidies Organization, explained that the goal of this action is to register the information of individuals and households so that based on the received data, it is possible to review the community of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. He also referred to the sending of text messages based on existing information and considering income deciles.
Many applicants faced errors when referring to the announced system. Masoud Beiglarian, Deputy for Smart Government Infrastructure Development, attributed the system's disruption to network issues and reported that efforts are being made to resolve it. Additionally, some individuals reported not receiving text messages, and Noorouzi responded to this issue by stating that the process of sending messages will continue until the end of today.
Concerns among applicants about the possibility of removal from the coupon value increase scheme in case of not registering information are noteworthy. Noorouzi emphasized in this regard: "It is absolutely not the case that we want to exclude part of the community by limiting the time opportunity for this scheme." He added that if the number of individuals who have not been able to register information exceeds a certain limit, there will be a possibility to extend the self-declaration deadline.
Despite the start of the self-declaration process, issues with the system and the lack of precise guidance for some applicants are among the challenges facing the implementation of this scheme. The publication of precise guidelines and transparent communication can help reduce the confusion of applicants.
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