<![CDATA[This study examines whether social assistance schemes discourage food micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) run by persons with disabilities in rural Cirebon Regency from formalizing their businesses. A qualitative case study was carried out in August 2026 through three field activities: participant observation and informal interviews at a disability craft center and the Cirebon Disability Communication Forum (FKDC), a semi-structured interview with a banana-chip producer, and an in-depth group interview with a village disability group (KDD) that farms catfish and processes catfish crackers. Data were reduced and coded by theme, then compared across sources. The findings are mixed. Early field observation pointed to a fear that holding a business identification number (NIB) or a home-industry permit (PIRT) would be picked up by NIK-based social data, raise a household's welfare decile, and end Family Hope Program (PKH) or Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT) benefits. Some groups responded by registering legality under a facilitator's, manager's, or forum's name. Yet the two later cases showed no such fear. One producer kept receiving BPNT after obtaining an NIB and halal certificate, and the village group reported that decile changes came from updates to housing and asset data, not from legal ownership of a business. The disincentive therefore looks conditional rather than universal. It appears to depend on information, on the type of assistance, and on whether a business is registered under an individual's or a group's name. Free halal certification and the presence of facilitators were the strongest drivers of formalization. The study is limited by its small number of cases and by figures that still rest on oral statements, so the results are an initial conceptual map rather than a general conclusion.]]>
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