Active beneficiaries from the Job Security Fund reached 11,539, while the total number of entitled, including those who did not apply, reached more than 13,000, according to the latest statistics from the Public Authority for Social Insurance.
As per recent Royal directives, the disbursement of job security benefit will extend until the end of December 2022 for those citizens whose services were terminated in the Sultanate of Oman. It will be disbursed to the former beneficiaries until the end of the year, exceptionally, starting from July.
Those benefiting from the fund include all the insured whose services were terminated for reasons beyond their control. Such cases are in three categories. The first are the recipients of the benefit during the previous period. They will continue receiving it until the end of the year, noting that the law stipulates the benefit to be disbursed for only six months.
The second category of beneficiaries are those who did not apply for the benefit, and their entitlement passed 90 days or more. Applications for this remain open till the end of June.
Under the third category are the beneficiaries whose entitlement did not reach 90 days or those eligible during the coming period, provided that the request is submitted within 90 days of the end of the service.
Khalifa bin Salem al Ghufaili, Director of the Legal Department at the Public Authority for Social Insurance, head of the Follow-up and Supervision Committee for the Implementation of the Job Security System, said the number of beneficiaries reached 11,539 until the end of May. Male beneficiaries are 8,468, while 3,071 are females.
The average age for both groups is 34 years, and the average benefit value amounted to approximately RO 292.
However, disbursement of previously given subsidies (self-employed workers; workers abroad and the like; and workers in the insurance protection extension system) will be suspended exceptionally from the system, according to the recent directives.
His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik had issued Royal Decree No 82/2020 approving the job security system in August 2020, with directives to take necessary measures to establish the Job Security Fund and finance it with RO 10 million from His Majesty as a start for its establishment in March 2020.
The fund was officially launched on November 1, 2020, as the benefits were disbursed to terminated employees through the generous support of His Majesty the Sultan as well as donations received from companies and individuals.
The system is supervised by the Ministry of Labour and the Authority, which helps laid-off workers during the current period, and it is hoped to include job-seekers within three years of its initiation.
In order to enhance the principle of social solidarity, the fund is meant for all employees working in the Sultanate of Oman, whether they are in the government or private sector.
To make the fund sustainable, every government employee is supposed to contribute 1 per cent of his/her salary per month to the fund, while his employer, whether government or private, pays another 1 per cent.
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