King orders SR1.12bn aid for the poor

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah

By P.K. ABDUL GHAFOUR | ARAB NEWS

JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah on Wednesday ordered the distribution of SR1.12 billion in emergency aid among the Kingdom’s poor to support them during the fasting month of Ramadan and the Eid Al-Fitr festival.

Social Affairs Minister Yousuf Al-Othaimeen thanked King Abdullah for his humanitarian gesture. He said the aid would be distributed among beneficiaries of social insurance, including the elderly, orphans, patients, widows and families of prisoners.

“The royal gesture reflects the king’s care for the poor and needy in the country and his desire to meet their pressing requirements in order to achieve social stability,” the minister said. He said the amount would be distributed immediately in coordination with the Ministry of Finance.

“This emergency financial aid is given in addition to the monthly assistance received by the beneficiaries of social insurance,” Al-Othaimeen said.

The number of Saudi families living in extreme poverty is estimated at 35,000, or 1.63 percent of the total Saudi population. They live on less than SR1,700 a month. There are 409,000 families that spend less than SR3,800 a month, representing almost 20 percent of the Saudis.

According to a study conducted by the National Strategy to Combat Poverty, Jazan province has the largest number of poor people in the country (45 percent) while Qassim has the lowest (eight percent).

The study showed that almost two fifths of families in Jazan live below the poverty threshold (the minimum level of income deemed necessary to maintain an adequate standard of living), followed by just under a quarter in Najran, Madinah and the northern border province.

The Kingdom has committed to a plan to cut the poverty rate to 2.2 percent by 2020. The issue of housing is a major problem faced by the country’s poor. About two thirds of retirees do not own homes. The Kingdom has established a General Authority for Housing with a SR10 billion budget to address the problem.

The new five-year plan (2010-2014) envisages the construction of one million housing units by the public and private sectors to meet 80 percent of demand for homes in various parts of the country. It will provide 266 million square meters of land for housing projects.

Comments

SADIQ JAFFER KUNNOORI

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I think the King should also know about the state of the poor expats coming to work in the country. A lot of them are paid 350SR to 600SR That is really cutting it close to less than poverty.

SALMA

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Yes...I agreed with Sadiq that many of the poor expart work in these country just take salary just only 350SR..how can the goverment not think to raise their salary....

K.BUTT

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LONG LIVE OUR GREAT KING ....... INSHA ALLAH !

MOHAMMED YOUSUF

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The best way to provide housing is to build the housing complexes fully owned by the Government and let the people velow poverty level stay for free till the time they improved their earnings and relocate them to the main stream. Review of cases must be done periodically to find out who are the beneficiares of the housing complexes available. This way the constanct check is monitored and needy people are treated in a respectable way and encourage them to extend their helping hand in combating the poverty levels.

SHAHREYAR

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There are always grateful effort from the government to her subject for their well beingness. But really it is delivered to the needy ? Because corrupt officials have made life more miserable of these poor fellows. And they are forced to do street crime like snatching of mobile etc. King should really put some body who loves humanity to sort out the problems of theses marginalised subjects.
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