Saudi Gazette report RIYADH – In a landmark decision, the Council of Ministers approved on Monday the insurance law for Saudis against unemployment. The law will be enforced mandatorily on all Saudi men and women workers below 59 years of age. The decision was taken by the Cabinet, chaired by Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense, at Al-Yamama Palace here. Elaborating on the insurance plan called Sanid (support), Minister of Labor Adel Fakieh, who is also chairman of the board of directors of the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI), said this will be a GOSI scheme which will come into force after six months. All Saudi workers in both the private and public sectors will be charged one percent of their monthly salary as a subscription. Their employer will pay the same amount into the scheme, which will be operated by a new state insurance body to be set up within six months. Those who lose their jobs will be entitled to up to 12 months of compensation, set at 60 percent of the average salary they earned in the previous three years for the first three months and then 50 percent for the following nine months. Benefits are capped at SR9,000 ($2,400) for the first three months and SR7,000 for the rest of the year. There is a minimum payment of SR2,000. Workers who resign from their jobs, have an alternative source of employment or income from investments, or have been paying into the scheme for less than a year are not eligible for compensation. Spelling out the features of the Sanid scheme, GOSI Governor Suleiman Al-Quwaiz said that both public and private sector employees will benefit from the scheme. Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Abdulaziz Khoja said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) following the Cabinet session that it also approved mandatory insurance for government vehicles through a uniform policy. After reviewing a report, presented by the Minister of Interior, on the basis of the findings of the expert committee that studied the application of insurance on government vehicles, the Cabinet instructed that the driver of government vehicle must get for the vehicle a third party insurance or a comprehensive insurance. The State will bear the insurance premiums for those vehicles when issuing the license for the first time only. Insurance for vehicles driven by more than one driver (service and security vehicles) will be insured by the State through approval of special provisions for this purpose in the budget allocated for each government agency that owns those vehicles so as to cover insurance against a third party. Insurance cover for vehicles owned by government departments will start after a committee, composed of representatives from the ministries of interior and finance, takes a number of procedures, including inventory of all government vehicles, their registration numbers and their ages in order to develop an appropriate mechanism to prevent any tampering with regard to the insured government vehicles. The Cabinet amended its previous decision that took nearly 35 years ago with regard to the compensation for students in the event of their death or disability. It amended paragraph (1) of the Council of Ministers Resolution No. 228 taken in the Hijri year of 1400 to read as: The student shall be granted, at all phases of education and training, compensation worth SR100,000 in the event of death or disability, and the disbursement shall be from the Ministry of Finance. The compensation shall be confined to only two situations when the student goes to school or attending training course or returning after attending the classes. The Cabinet also approved the regulation for housing subsidy for citizens. Housing Minister Showaish Al-Dhuwaihi said that those who deserve the financial support may register at the ministry's e-portal (www.eskan.gov.sa). Any married Saudi citizen, aged 25 or above, and who does not have a house can apply for the subsidy.
