<![CDATA[General Background: Social assistance programs, including the Family Hope Program (PKH), Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT), and Direct Cash Assistance (BLT), are government initiatives designed to alleviate poverty and support vulnerable communities in Indonesia. Specific Background: Social assistance budget management involves planning, implementation, monitoring, and accountability, yet challenges remain in fund realization and beneficiary targeting. Knowledge Gap: Previous studies have examined social assistance implementation and distribution into budget management effectiveness, implementation barriers, and improvement strategies at the Sidoarjo Regency Social Service. Aims: This study analyzes the effectiveness of social assistance budget management, identifies implementation obstacles, and explores strategies to improve budget management and targeting accuracy. Results: Using a qualitative descriptive approach, the findings indicate that budget management generally follows established procedures. However, its effectiveness remains suboptimal because of inaccurate beneficiary data, discrepancies in the Integrated Social Welfare Data digital access constraints, and insufficient interagency coordination. Novelty: The study examines budget management effectiveness by connecting administrative procedures, beneficiary targeting, budget realization, and field-level implementation challenges context. Implications: Strengthening beneficiary data verification, integrating central and local databases, improving staff capacity, and enhancing coordination and monitoring are necessary to support more accountable and targeted social assistance distribution. Key Findings Highlights Budget management follows established procedures, but actual implementation remains below its intended effectiveness. Inaccurate beneficiary records and DTKS discrepancies contribute to mistargeted assistance and unspent allocations. Data integration, staff development, and stronger interagency coordination are identified as key improvement measures. Keywords : Social Assistance, Budget Management, Targeting Accuracy, Poverty Alleviation, Sidoarjo Regency]]>
