Ibraheem Al-Mieqil, director general for the Human Resource Development Fund (Hadaf), has warned beneficiaries of the Hafiz program which aims to support unemployed Saudis that they would face a 10 percent deduction from the aid received in the event of absence from the training workshops to be held by the fund, or for failing to update their data on a weekly basis.

He said that people aged between 40 and 59 years were less at risk of losing points for a job than those between 25 and 40 years. He added that it is the fund’s duty to support job seekers of all ages as long as they are capable of working.

Hafiz will embark on a program to ensure the seriousness of beneficiaries through obliging them to join on-the-job-trainings. It will deduct 10 percent from the aid given to beneficiaries, which is SR150 out of SR1,500, if beneficiaries fail to show up for electronic training or fail to update their information each week.

There are many reasons for job seekers’ applications to be rejected under the Hafiz program.

The beneficiaries/job seekers are rejected when they refuse to take up three job offers while their application is under study, if they fail to show up at the development trainings held by the fund and if they do not undergo four sessions of training by distant learning. The job seeker may also be rejected if he fails the obligatory distant training program four times in a row.

Furthermore, job seekers may be rejected if they don’t turn up for interviews arranged by the fund or fail to conduct weekly updates six times consecutively during the period that their application is under consideration.

Al-Maiqil warned Hafiz beneficiaries against seeking other people’s help to access their account for a sum of money as this will endanger their privacy. If any changes in the nature of the account are detected, the aid will be terminated with immediate effect. He added that this weekly entry is in the interest of the beneficiary because it enables them to find out about job offers or available training opportunities.

Women form the majority of aid beneficiaries with the number of those registered reaching 620,000 out of a total of 650,000.

The Hafiz program supports individuals between 25 and 60 years of age financially. Those enrolled for the aid are students studying outside of regular institutions, inmates of welfare homes and temporary ID card holders. The total number of beneficiaries from the program reached 1,900,000 citizens during the past two years, 80 percent of whom are women.