Providing a decent life for the citizens of the UAE is a top priority for the wise leadership, represented by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, may God protect him. The relevant institutions are making continuous efforts to harness all capabilities to make citizens happy and enhance their well-being in order to make room for their participation in areas of life. All public. The social support programs provided by the UAE aim to reach financially independent and socially active families, to perpetuate the values of positive citizenship and achieve a decent and sustainable life for all members of society, in order to activate the comprehensive development efforts witnessed by the UAE.
His Highness the President of the State has affirmed on more than one occasion that the state is moving forward without stopping, keeping in mind the well-being, security and progress of the citizen as a top priority. In fact, in light of this great interest that the UAE attaches to enhancing the well-being of its citizens, there have been many programs and initiatives. Federal Law No. (2) of 2001 represented a qualitative leap in the efforts made in this context. According to this law, monthly assistance is provided to 12 categories of UAE citizens residing within the country, namely: widows, divorcees, people of determination, the elderly, and orphans. Those of unknown parentage, those with health disabilities, married students, families of prisoners, the financially incapacitated, abandoned women, and female citizens married to foreign husbands.
During the past few years, the state’s efforts to enhance the standard of decent living for citizens have witnessed many important developments, and here it is worth noting that the integrated social support program for citizens with limited income targets families and people with limited income, whose source of income is less than 25 thousand dirhams per month, and this covers The program covers various basic axes to support national families through three main programs: The first is new allocations, where four allocations were created: the housing allocation, the university education allocation, the allocation for unemployed citizens over the age of 45, and the allocation for the unemployed person seeking work. These allocations aim to enable low-income Emirati families to obtain adequate housing, encourage outstanding children to enroll in university, and support elderly citizens. The second program concerns increased allowances, with care being taken to increase the allowances allocated to all family members, including the three current allowances, which are: the head of the family allowance, the wife’s allowance, and the children’s allowance. The third program relates to inflation allowances, as it includes three types, including: food support allowance, electricity and water allowance, and fuel allowance. The social support program for low-income people was restructured in July 2022, bringing its total value to 28 billion dirhams, as the value of annual social support was raised from 2.7 billion dirhams to 5 billion dirhams annually.
At the local level, there are a number of social support programs in the Emirates, including the “Abu Dhabi Social Support Programme,” which was launched by the Department of Community Development in Abu Dhabi in January 2019, through the “Abu Dhabi Social Support Authority” and falls within the “Abu Dhabi Ghadan 21 Development Accelerators Program.” It aims to enhance living standards and a decent life for all citizen families in the emirate, in a way that achieves living stability, financial independence, and meeting their basic needs. On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of its founding, the Abu Dhabi Social Support Authority announced the provision of social financial support, with a total value exceeding two billion dirhams, noting that the number of members of beneficiary families who were able to obtain jobs based on the empowerment and training programs provided by the authority through its partners, reached 1,250. Beneficiaries, while 6,700 beneficiaries were registered on the “Nafs” platform, and 2,700 beneficiaries on the “Mawaheb” platform, in addition to providing financial awareness programs for more than 1,100 beneficiaries, as well as social empowerment programs and social workshops for about 682 beneficiaries.
* Issued by the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research.
#Integrated #programs #enhance #wellbeing #countrys #citizens
