COVID-19: 4,000 Kuwaitis without salaries register for public aid

Kuwait City: The Undersecretary of Kuwait’s Ministry of Social Affairs Abdul Aziz Shuaib revealed that over 4,000 Kuwaitis have registered on the “Kuwaitis without salaries” online platform that was launched two weeks ago, Al Anba reported.

The Ministry of Social Affairs initiated the programme to look into the cases of those affected financially during the COVID-19 crisis. The ministry adopted the responsibility of providing a portion of those registered with public aid, while the other portion of those registered will be handled by the Public Affairs for Manpower and the Public Institution for Social Security.

Those that are looking to receive public aid from the ministry are required to update their data by September. But Shuaib explained that even if the deadline expires, the ministry will continue to distribute public aid.

In terms of changing the deadline, the ministry is waiting to see what will happen during the next stage of the five-phase plan to return to normalcy, which is set to begin on September 30, before changing the deadline to distribute aid.

Shauib pointed out that the ministry would never resort to stopping or reducing public aid;even during the COVID-19 crisis it was never late in distributing aid.

The Minister of Affairs recently announced a governmental proposal to create an electronic platform that would allow every citizen affected by the pandemic to register their data so that the government agencies concerned would study each persons’ case.

The programme was initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to operate until the pandemic is over. Last week, some of the beneficiaries received funds to their bank accounts.

Majority of the 1.4 million Kuwaiti population work in the public sector; only 10 per cent work in the private sector.