By Abdullah Al-Dahas
MAKKAH — A total of 2.9 families have signed up to the Ministry of Labor and Social Development’s Hisab Al-Muwatin (Citizens’ Account) Program .
The General Supervisor of the program, Majed Al-Essaimi, said a total of 10.1 million people have been enrolled as members of the initiative.
“More than 80 percent of the people who signed up did so through their mobile phones. The program had automatically signed up all senior citizens, widows and divorcees who are subscribers to the social insurance,” said Al-Essaimi.
He added the total of senior citizens, divorcees and widows signed up to social insurance reached 1.5 million.
“Registered users are not required to constantly update their information unless there are changes in information related to the monthly salary and the location of residence. The user is responsible to update his information in this case,” said Al-Essaimi.
He explained all of the recommendations and new policies of the system will be submitted to the higher ministerial committee on May 1, 2017.
“If the proposal was approved, the users will receive their respective allowances. There are no conditions to register for the Muwatin Program. It’s open to all Saudi families, Saudi individuals and Saudi women married to non-Saudis ,” said Al-Essaimi.
He also said the general public can contact the department of the program through its Twitter account, through the e-portal itself and by calling the customer service center of the department on 19912.
“We are constantly monitoring pseudo accounts and shutting them down. There are 27 help centers available for people who cannot register themselves. They may visit these centers and have staff members assisting them,” said Al-Essaimi.
He also said registering for the program only takes a few minutes and is done through extremely easy steps.
Families in need of social insurance funds constitute 12 percent of Saudi society.
There are 830,000 such families and 2.5 million individuals.
The program divides social insurance recipients into five categories.
The first category includes people with a maximum monthly income of SR8,699. The second category includes people with a monthly income between SR8,700 and SR11,999. The third category includes people with a monthly income between SR12,000 and SR15,299. The fourth category includes people with a monthly income of SR15,300 and SR20,159. The fifth category people with a monthly income of SR20,160 will not receive financial support.
The program also encourages families to be conscious of their consumption of water and electricity.
© The Saudi Gazette 2017
