RIYADH, 22 March 2007 — The Ministry of Social Affairs announced an agreement with a Saudi bank that will enable the disabled and families that adopt orphaned Saudis to withdraw their public assistance money directly from ATM machines.
Minister of Social Affairs Abdul Mohsen Al-Akkas and Al-Rajhi Bank CEO Abdullah Suleiman Al-Rajhi signed the three-year agreement, called Care, in a ceremony in Riyadh on Tuesday.
Under the agreement, Al-Rajhi Bank will issue approximately 250,000 ATM cards to dependents of the ministry’s social assistance programs. The bank will also provide 20 ATM kiosks to the ministry to install in areas where banking services are few and far between.
According to Al-Rajhi Bank, recipients will have access to the banks’ approximately 1,700 ATM machines all over the Kingdom.
In poorer, rural areas, the bank’s ATMs will be modified to allow disbursements of notes as small as SR10. Regular Saudi ATM machines do not provide currency notes smaller than the SR100 bill and even those are often unavailable, forcing customers to withdraw in SR200 increments.
“The new card scheme will help recipients of the Welfare and Social Development Agency in the ministry to receive money in a modern and easy way,” said Al-Akkas after the signing, adding that the program targets two segments of the community: families of disabled persons and families who take care of orphans.
“These new cards will enable them to receive financial assistance on a regular basis, wherever they may be.”
Al-Rahi said the deal gives the ministry control over the accounts where this money is deposited, including the ability to freeze accounts if necessary if an investigation needs to take place.
“The ministry can control the cards of recipients through an automatic mechanism,” he said.
Disabled social benefits recipients receive annual disbursements while sponsors of orphans receive a monthly stipend. The Care Program would handle both kinds of disbursements.
The ministry says that 131,917 physically disabled Saudis receive SR812 million in annual public-assistance disbursements. The ministry says 3,928 Saudi families receive monthly payments of SR155 million per year.
Though the ministry did not break down the exact amount issued to each recipient, based on the figures the ministry provided the average disbursement for a physically disabled Saudi individual is SR6,155 per year while the average for families that adopt orphans would be SR39,460 per family.
