Hafiz being abused by educated, idle women

The Hafiz program, which doles out SR2,000 per month to unemployed Saudis, has come as a blessing in disguise for those who are short of cash and are not keen on working, particularly women.
Several Saudi men and women, taking advantage of the system, have enrolled themselves in the program and have been receiving the monthly allowance.
This, under Saudi laws, is a crime since it amounts to manipulation of the system besides depriving others who are genuinely in need of assistance from getting it. Under the Hafiz program, unemployed Saudis get SR2,000 ($533) a month for up to one year. The program was introduced in late 2011.
A study presented at the Riyadh Economic Forum revealed that the number of unemployed Saudis looking for jobs as per the Hafiz database was 1.6 million, with women alone accounting for 1.2 million. This means that 78 percent of Hafiz beneficiaries are Saudi women.
The Hafiz database also showed that 253,613 of the women had bachelor’s degrees and most of them had majored in social sciences, Islamic studies, literature, natural sciences and education.
Says Lama K, a stay-at-home mother: “I am a graduate. My husband’s income is low and we hardly make enough money to pay our rent. It seemed a good idea for me to help him out by enrolling under Hafiz, to add to the income for our family.”
Admitting that it was illegal, she said: “I don’t believe I have committed a mistake since it is hard for both of us to go to work and leave the children at home. It feels great when I receive the money and give it to my husband to make payments.”
In the case of Jawaher O, a part-time teacher, the idea came when her husband went into deep debt and her job wasn’t paying much. “It’s not easy to manage if we make less than SR5,000 because rent is so high and other payments like instalments for car. To supplement the family income, I decided to work in a Jeddah-based college which pays just SR2,000. I then enrolled in the program and now I make SR4,000 a month which is helpful,” she said.
“The college pays me through a check and the ministry would deposit the money in my bank account. It is a great arrangement,” she added.
Hanan A, stay-at-home mother, decided to enroll in Hafiz after her mother-in-law told her she had to do it to pitch in with additional income. “I did not know that my husband needed financial support but every time I needed to buy something, he would ask me to put it off till the next month. My mother-in-law said I should enroll in the Hafiz program and that I could use the money on myself,” she said.
“I was happy with the idea, but I ended up paying bills and helping my husband with the bills instead of buying what I really wanted,” she added.
Saudi lawyer Mohamad Nayta says women taking advantage of the program is legal loophole in Hafiz. This deprives those who are seriously in need of the money till they find a suitable job. “Taking advantage of it is illegal. Those who indulge in it lack education and knowledge, besides not showing any responsibility toward the community. Such people are not only making it difficult for the government to solve the unemployment problem, but are making it worse by manipulating it and taking something that is not theirs,” he said.
Nayta suggested that women who are taking advantage of Hafiz should realize it is only a temporary solution, and that they should have long-term plans to secure their future.
“Most Saudis do not understand the aim of the unemployment allowance. Hafiz is a program that helps Saudis till they land jobs, and not charity from the king,” he said.
In 2011, the Ministry of Labor had said that the unemployment list had 560,000 Saudi women against 140,000 Saudi men, a discrepancy that sparked a debate on unemployment among Saudi women. Some Saudi men accuse women of registering in Hafiz without ever having looked for a job.