Benazir Kafaalat

 The Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCT) Benazir Kafaalat Programme of BISP, was initiated in 2008. The short term objective was to cushion the adverse impacts of the food, fuel and financial crisis on the poor, its broader objective is to meet the redistributive goals of the country by providing a minimum income support package to the chronically poor and those who are more likely to be affected negatively by future economic shocks.

This programme provides monthly payments of Rs. 2,000, savings bank accounts and improved access to mobile phones for poor and disadvantaged women across the country, meanwhile the stipend amount has now been increased from 12000/- to 14000/- paid every six months. Currently the number of enrolled/registered beneficiaries of Kafaalat is around 8.71 Million. Target is to enhance the number of beneficiaries to 9 Million by June 2023.

 

 BISP experimented different payments distribution mechanisms. Currently, there are five payment disbursement mechanisms:

  • i- Pakistan Post Money Orders
  • ii- Smart Card payment dispersal System
  • iii- Mobile Banking System
  • iv- Debit Card System
  • v- Bio-Metric Verification System (BVS)

 

Significant improvement in payment mechanism has been made to make it more efficient, transparent and user-friendly. To promote transparency and ensure accountability BISP has various technology based initiatives including:

  • i- Payment Verification Interface (PVI)
  • ii- Online Monitoring through Dashboard
  • iii- E-Office
  • iv- Payment Complaints Management System(PCMS)

Field operations have been re organized as North and South operations. Spot checks during payment disbursement days are initiated. Field officers are required to visit at least one payment site on daily basis. Active monitoring was carried out by field operations in the smart card districts. Mac binding of PCMS IDs of Assistant Directors has been done which reduce 99 percent of misuse of IDs.

General public and BISP beneficiaries can register their complaints on BISP hotline number 0800-26477. It works from 9am to 11pm.