Sunday 17 / November / 2024
Muscat: The Social Protection Fund has paved the way for implementing the provisions of the “Social Protection Law” since the beginning of this year. Steps in this direction include setting up branches of social insurance and social protection schemes that establish pillars for the protection of individuals and family members against multiple risks in life within the framework of a future vision for comprehensive social protection.
On 1 January 2024, the “Social Protection Fund” began implementing the provisions of the Social Protection Law through which direct cash benefits are disbursed to those eligible across different segments of society.
The assistance is extended within certain portfolios of “schemes” as stated below. The schemes are fully funded by the state’s public treasury, which saw the introduction of schemes to persons with disabilities, children, the elderly, orphans and widows.
As many as 1,232,283 people benefited from the “Childhood Scheme” by the end of October 2024. This benefit was made available to all Omani children from birth until the age of eighteen years.
Also, a total of 167,527 beneficiaries had access to the “Scheme of the Elderly”. In addition, a total of 41,256 beneficiaries benefited from aids allocated to “Persons with disabilities”, while about 16,325 beneficiaries had access to assistance extended to segments of orphans and widows by the end of October 2024.
The “Family Income Support Scheme” emerged as a complement to the enhanced programmes of the Social Protection System aimed to provide protection for individuals from childhood until old age. This benefit seeks to provide financial support to the lowest-income groups in the Sultanate of Oman by filling the gap between the actual income of those groups and their target income, in accordance with certain determinants stipulated in the Social Protection Law.
More than 42,510 beneficiaries availed the “Family Income Support Scheme”, raising to 1,499,901 the number of those who had access to social protection schemes.
As for social insurance programmes based on “Employer Contributions”, they include insurance for the elderly, insurance against disability and death, insurance for work injuries and occupational diseases, job security insurance, maternity leave insurance, sick leave and unscheduled leave insurance, as well as the Savings System.
The number of active insured persons in the private sector (within the branch of insurance for the elderly), disability and death stood at about 259,577. The number of active insured persons in the government sector stood at about 190,420 and the number of active Omani insured persons abroad stood at 38.
In GCC states, the number of active Omani insured persons working for employers in all sectors stood at about 6,194 beneficiaries. As for the insurance of self-employed Omanis and those in a similar status, the number of active insured persons stood at about 120,926 beneficiaries. The number of Omani retirees exceeded 89,680 persons, while the number of individuals entitled to pensions reached 69,127.
By the end of 2023, the Investment Integration and Management Team began drawing up an “asset transfer strategy” and the asset transfer process started in January 2024. By the end of October 2024, it covered 99.8 percent of the total assets of the Social Protection Fund.
The digital transition rate reached 63 percent by the end of 2024, with 20 projects implemented as part of the plan for the years 2024-2025. Of this plan, 100 percent of the project targets for the year 2024 were achieved, which constitutes 51 percent of the plan’s overall objectives.
The Social Protection Fund has been linked with 12 government institutions during 2024. The system represents a very advanced step in extending protection to Omani citizens. It reflects the deep attention accorded to the social aspects by His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, in accordance with what is included in the Basic Law of the State and Oman Vision 2040.
