Muscat: Overall spending on social protection has surged to RO 577 million signaling the great attention the Sultanate of Oman pays to achieving stability, a dignified life and improving the standard of living of citizens.
Dr Faisal bin Abdullah al Farsi, CEO of the Social Protection Fund (SPF), explained that the fund’s system includes a set of policies and programmes that deal with the life cycle of the individual from birth to old age. There are two types of benefits: insurance programmes and social protection programmes.
The Social Protection Fund functions as an executive body to enforce the laws and legislation related to the social protection system, Al Farsi said stressing that governance is the basis for disbursing benefits and that governance aims to ensure that benefits only go to those who are actually entitled to them.
Al Farsi said that the number of direct beneficiaries of social protection benefits crossed 1.5 million people. As for insurance programmes, there are 590,000 active insured persons in addition to 1 million foreign workers who were added to the social protection system for the first time. Hence, the Social Protection Fund benefits more than 2 million people monthly. Al Farsi noted that the system includes three main levels namely: zero level which is the basic social protection such as the elderly benefit which amounts to RO 115 disbursed as part of social protection support on top of the retirement pension. Certainly, some benefits are paid automatically to all Omanis who meet the conditions, such as the elderly, while other benefits are subject to verification to ensure that they go to the persons who need them the most.
Regarding the classification of permanent diseases, Al Farsi said that measures are underway to classify the category of permanent diseases as part of the benefits of people with disabilities and the classification is expected to be approved soon.
Al Farsi said that the new social protection law was distinguished by making retirement pensions variable instead of being fixed due to inflation. Accordingly, pensions are calculated on the basis of 75 per cent of the official inflation rate while ensuring a minimum annual rise. This year, the percentage was raised to 1 per cent and will be reviewed annually according to the inflation rate. As per the new system, the retirement pension is calculated according to the annual wage growth rate which amounted to 3 per cent last year. This means that individuals who did not receive a salary rise will be automatically compensated by this percentage upon calculating the retirement pension.
Also under the Social Protection System is the Job Security System which provides temporary support to those who lost their jobs for reasons beyond their control during crises. The system has seen an extension of the unemployment benefits for more than five years due to economic crises, Al Farsi concluded.
The text is translated by Khalid Al Kush and written by Yousef Al Habsi
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