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.
