Kuwaiti women over 60 with no fixed income to receive $800 a month

Manama: Kuwaiti women over 60 with no fixed source of income will be eligible to receive a monthly assistance from the state under a new social scheme, a social affairs ministry official has said.

"The ministry has adopted the new public assistance law draft," the official said. "It will include giving married Kuwaiti women who are over 60 years old a monthly assistance of KD225 ($810)," the official said, quoted by Al Rai daily.

The women must not posses a real estate or have a commercial registration and must not be a recipient of other financial assistance, the unnamed source said.

According to the official, the decision to extend the assistance to sexagenarian women was taken after a study concluded that several men tend to refuse to give money to their wives after they reach 60 and argue that the duty of their sons and daughters to help them financially.

The draft has been submitted to the government, the official said.