From various issues in development, the significant growth of the population has contributed to the emergence of many problems related to the limited resources to support it. These problems include unemployment, adequate income and livelihood, housing, poverty, environmental degradation, health, social protection, fertility and mortality, migration, and other social issues, including politics. Data from many countries indicate that higher population growth in a country will be accompanied by lower per capita income. From a political perspective, a larger population also makes it increasingly difficult to represent the entire society in the political process and, in turn, makes it difficult to measure the degree of democracy (Dyson, 2010).

In 2019, 47 percent of the world's poor population reached 3.64 billion out of its 7.74 billion inhabitants (based on the poverty line of PPP $6.85/person/day). Despite various policy mixtures to alleviate poverty such as improving access to credit, promoting saving movements, supporting gender equality, and enhancing decent living conditions, microfinance funding has not yet been able to significantly contribute to poverty alleviation. In sub-Saharan Africa, which is dominated by low-income countries, excluding high-income ones, only 43.6 percent of the poorest 40 percent of the population have access to financial institutions or mobile payment services. The situation is relatively better in East Asia and the Pacific, where 74.7 percent of the poorest 40 percent of the population have bank accounts or access to mobile payment services. Access to financial services plays a crucial role in poverty alleviation efforts since it enables poor communities to have access to poverty reduction programs and to initiate/develop their businesses (Chibba, 2009). Financial inclusion through mobile phone subscriptions has also shown a positive impact on poverty alleviation in 123 countries, enabling remittance inflows (Inoue, 2024).

In India, the microfinance program model refers to the Grameen Bank and self-help group (SHG) financing model where funding and program implementation are carried out by the central government involving the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), UNICEF, and other institutions is the most widely used model. Unlike other models, this model is relatively successful because it can identify multidimensional poverty issues faced by the target communities of this program. Generally, the program participants are rural women who voluntarily participate in the program and are motivated to run micro-enterprises. The program offers training and support for various types of businesses such as food production, daily consumer goods, agriculture and animal husbandry for food security, information technology education, waste management, tourism, health services, and others. While this program can improve the entrepreneurial skills of the participants, it is limited by the lack of market access for larger-scale businesses. Therefore, a marketing program should be implemented to ensure the absorption of the participants' production outputs (Deepika & Sigi, 2014).

The data collected by (Fungáčová & Weill, 2015) from the Global Findex database indicates that the considerations of the public in owning and using financial services are limited funds, distance, account ownership costs, documentation completeness, trust issues, religious teachings, and the presence of family members who already have access. For the Brazilian community, religious teachings and the presence of family members with bank accounts are the two biggest factors (14.51 percent) that prevent them from having an account in a formal financial institution. For the Chinese community, the highest factor is religious teachings (14.42 percent) and the second is lack of funds (14.35 percent). For the Indian community, the primary factor is a lack of funds (14.44 percent) and the second is the distance of financial services from their residence (14.34 percent), the same second factor is also faced by the Russian community (14.81 percent). For the Russian community, the first factor is a lack of documentation (14.82 percent). While, for the South African community, distance, documentation, trust, lack of funds, and religious teachings are all equally ranked as the top barriers (14.32 percent). Overall, the lack of funds is the primary barrier (14.45 percent), and the second is distance (14.41 percent). The research also shows that owning bank accounts and loans in formal financial institutions are influenced by the middle and tertiary education levels (higher education). While some empirical evidence shows a positive impact of financial inclusion on wage or income and/or poverty alleviation, a study based on middle-income and low-income countries shows insignificant impact of financial inclusion on employment (Lenka, 2024).

Learning from the experiences of several countries, especially India which has experience in implementing the largest microcredit poverty alleviation program in the world, (Ghosh, 2014) suggests that microcredit programs for poverty alleviation should be tightly regulated to ensure they are not profit-oriented, but socially oriented. Subsidies for transaction costs should be limited to certain sectors to prevent excessive lending, avoid political interference, and recognize that access to financial services is only one of many factors that play a role in poverty reduction.

Income is an important factor in reducing the number of poor people and income inequality. An increase in income, especially among the 40% of the population with the lowest income, is expected to improve their well-being, which in turn reduces the number of poor people and income inequality (Fitrawaty et al., 2018). One important variable in increasing income is the increase in employment with high productivity. In 2022, West Java Province has an unemployment rate of 9.8%, which is a high unemployment rate in Indonesia (Barat, 2022). The role of family members, especially the head of the household, in finding employment and providing family income sources becomes crucial. The head of the household is the main family member who provides for the family and is the primary source of family income. Based on the Social and Economic Survey data in March 2022, 41% of the heads of households in West Java Province were not working as employees. This figure indicates that the employment rate for the heads of households as workers in West Java Province is less than 50%, therefore the role of heads of households who have businesses is quite dominant and has a high role in providing household income.

In the present era, the use of the internet has become an integral part of daily life. This is evidenced by the March 2022 Susenas data, which shows that internet usage reached 85.14% of all households with mobile phones in West Java Province. The use of the Internet has also encompassed electronic marketing (e-marketing), which includes online buying and selling (Candra Irawan, 2020) However, the use of the internet for sales activities by household heads is only 6.92% or only 2.17% compared to all residents of West Java Province who have mobile phones. For online purchases, household heads account for around 16.5% of all households with mobile phones or only 5.07% of all residents of West Java Province who have mobile phones. The internet literacy of household heads is still low, but it can be a valuable asset for productive internet use.

Household heads who are self-employed or assisted by workers have low internet literacy, resulting in low utilization of internet media for production processes. Low production, which contributes to poverty, is also influenced by the low access to capital experienced by families, especially poor families in Indonesia (Widodo, 2011). Understanding financial management, including financial sources and use, or financial literacy for household heads who are self-employed tends to be low (Soraya & Lutfiati, 2020); (Sumani & Roziq, 2020). Combining internet literacy and financial literacy can increase family business productivity and provide income levels that can lift families out of poverty (Ramadhan & Asandimitra, 2019).

Based on the Financial Services Authority of Indonesia, Regulation No. 76/POJK.07/2016 on the Improvement of Financial Literacy and Inclusion in the Financial Services Sector for Consumers and/or Society, financial literacy is knowledge, skills, and confidence that affect attitudes and behaviors to improve decision-making and management quality, to achieve well-being. Meanwhile, financial inclusion is the availability of access to financial institutions, products, and services following the needs and abilities of the community to improve their welfare. In addition, the OJK (Financial Services Authority) has a strong commitment to increasing the national financial literacy and inclusion index, which is reflected in the Indonesian National Strategy for Financial Literacy and Inclusion (SNLIK) 2021 – 2025. The objective of this strategy is to achieve sustainable financial well-being. This is in line with research conducted by (Bakar & Sulong, 2018), which shows that financial inclusion has an important role in solid policy planning to achieve sustainable growth. An empirical study conducted by (Sethi & Acharya, 2018) reveals the same results, that there is a long-term positive relationship between financial inclusion and economic growth in 31 countries around the world. (Kim et al., 2018), researched the positive impact of financial inclusion on economic growth with data from 55 countries in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Financial inclusion also directly impacts community welfare, which is in line with the influence of financial inclusion on economic growth. Financial inclusion can help reduce poverty and inequality by helping people invest for the future, stabilizing consumption, and managing financial risks. In addition, access to formal financial services allows communities to carry out financial transactions more efficiently and safely and helps the poor to escape poverty by allowing them to invest in education and business (Demirguc-Kunt et al., 2017). Research conducted by (Addury, 2019) analyzed the role of financial inclusion by considering the influence of the amount of credit and savings/investment on household income, consumption expenditure, and living facilities. The data was taken from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) for the years 2000, 2007, and 2014. The results of the study found that there was a significant influence of the amount of credit on household income and a significant influence of the amount of credit and savings/investment on household consumption expenditure. A recent study with a sample from Indonesia was conducted by(Wardhono et al., 2022), which stated that the variables that significantly influence the level of rural community consumption are savings ownership, financial literacy, market access, income, ownership of assets in the form of houses and buildings, and age. A similar study was also conducted by (Sani Ibrahim et al., 2019) with a sample from Nigeria, which showed the same results, that financial inclusion has a significant positive effect on household welfare. However, the decomposition analysis showed that middle and high-income households benefit more from financial inclusion than low-income households.

By using different approaches, a study by (Zia & Prasetyo, 2018), provides a comprehensive understanding of how expanding access to financial services can contribute to reducing poverty and addressing income inequality across various regions in Indonesia. The results show that financial inclusion negatively affects poverty, meaning that higher financial inclusion leads to lower poverty levels.

An interesting research finding was conducted by (N’dri & Kakinaka, 2020) on the impact of financial inclusion through digital money in Burkina Faso. The research confirmed the important role of financial inclusion in reducing poverty, especially when individuals access financial services through digital money. Mobile-based financial services have also become an important tool for facilitating financial inclusion for previously unbanked populations in developing countries.

A study conducted by (Kim et al., 2018), using a systematic review of 54 academic research papers on the relationship between mobile phone-based financial services and financial inclusion. This study contributed to understanding existing research on mobile phone-based financial services for financial inclusion in developing countries. Systematic review methods were also used by (Duvendack & Mader, 2020) through 32 systematic reviews that have been identified, stating that the evidence of systematic reviews is not convincing enough to show the impact of financial inclusion. The main finding is that the impact is more likely to be positive than negative, but it varies. The effect on women's empowerment in general has a positive impact, but it depends on programs that are often beyond financial services, as well as cultural and geographical contexts. Access to savings has a small but consistent positive effect on the poor.

Research conducted by (Soraya & Lutfiati, 2020) shows that gender, student achievement values, family background, and work experience are variables that affect financial literacy. On the other hand, (Iskhak, 2021) studied the level of financial literacy for accounting knowledge and gender, where gender does not affect financial literacy compared to accounting ability. Financial knowledge has a significant influence on people's financial behavior, and some things to look at are educational backgrounds, family backgrounds, and opportunities to get training (Sumani & Roziq, 2020). The influence of financial literacy is also reinforced by (Anggita et al., 2020) during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 on the role of housewives in managing family finances.

The massive use of the internet lately has influenced human behavior in daily life, including running a business (Candra Irawan, 2020). Internet marketing provides product satisfaction to customers easily, quickly, and efficiently, so that relationships with customers are easier and maintained (Candra Irawan, 2020). E-Marketing, which is a modern transaction method, also increases customer satisfaction in terms of value compared to conventional transactions (Javadian Dehkordi et al., 2012). The relationship between financial literacy and internet literacy provides a strong evidence to increase productivity. This is shown by (Adiyanta, 2019) in millennials in Surabaya, where financial knowledge and behavior are strongly supported by internet literacy. Increasing financial inclusion with the Internet as a driver is a concern of the research by (Noor et al., 2020), where gender, age, education, and respondents' fields of work are the basis for behavior that can increase financial inclusion and internet technology.

The analysis conducted by(Chunfang et al., 2022), examines the impact of internet usage on household consumption expenditures based on data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) over three periods, namely 2014, 2016, and 2018. The research findings indicate that internet usage significantly increases household consumption. A similar study was also conducted by(Ma et al., 2020), which investigates the effects of internet usage on rural household income and expenditure using a sample of households from China. The findings show that internet usage significantly increases both household income and expenditure.

The study by (Ratnasari, 2021) highlights how internet use leads to an 11.8% increase in income for entrepreneurs in the informal sector. The income increase due to internet usage was found to be 12% higher for entrepreneurs in non-Java regions compared to Java regions. Similarly, the research by (Kharisma et al., 2021) demonstrates that internet use negatively affects poverty, indicating its role in enhancing income and economic stability in West Java Province.

Based on the various descriptions and literature above, a large percentage of people in Indonesia do not have access or opportunities to work as employees but have their businesses or receive assistance in running their businesses. Business activities carried out by household heads are still limited to using the Internet, which has great potential to increase business productivity. Access to and literacy of financial inclusion are also low among low-income communities. Therefore, this study aims to measure the relationship between financial inclusion, internet access, and low-income households in Indonesia. This paper introduces a novel approach by categorizing poverty based on the poverty line, specifically targeting the lowest 20% and 40% of income-earning households. This method allows for a deeper understanding of the impact of financial inclusion and internet access on these specific segments.

Financial inclusion for the poor based on the Poverty Line only affects savings ownership, but not access to credit for increasing the income of poor families. Access to credit only has an impact on the income of poor families when it covers 40% of families with the lowest income. Internet access for poor families below the Poverty Line is still limited to increasing information on the internet and purchasing media, indicating a consumptive pattern. Variables indicating internet usage that increase productivity are not yet significant at the level of poor families below the Poverty Line. Population growth up to 40% of low-income families only has an impact on the internet that can increase productivity in terms of its use for sales. Several control variables can increase the income of poor families, such as increasing access to higher education, empowering women for productive family income, and improving productive access in rural areas. Family planning education to limit the number of children also needs to be promoted, as an increase in family members will also increase family expenses.