Saudi's social insurance organisation extends support for private sector

JEDDAH: Saudis working in private sector enterprises affected by the pandemic will receive a three-month extension of support from the government, the Saudi General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) announced on Tuesday.

In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency, GOSI said that a Royal Decree ordered the extension of support through “Saned,” an unemployment insurance scheme, starting from November through to January 2021.

The scheme will include a maximum of 50 percent of Saudis working in enterprises still affected by the pandemic, making private sector support extend to a nine-month period.

GOSI explained the mechanism of support, jobs worthy of support, and eligibility conditions to pay the compensations for the additional period. They are based on measures and conditions set by the committee formed by the Royal Decree, which includes the Ministries of Finance, Economy and Planning, Human Resources and Social Development and GOSI.

The organization also confirmed that support will cover housing, travel agencies, tourist tours agencies, reservation services and related activities, air transport, sports, leisure, and artistic and creative activities.

GOSI said that enterprises eligible for support should decrease the percentage of support to 50 percent of total Saudis working in them starting from Oct. 1 until Oct. 15, through the enterprise’s account on the online insurance system.

In case an enterprise does not follow this condition, all requests by its workers will be annulled, and the owner of the enterprise will have to pay the full salary of the workers, including their subscription fees for social insurance.

In addition, GOSI said an enterprise owner has the right to exclude any supported employees and ask them to report back to work.

GOSI confirmed that the committee will regularly review and update the list of sectors affected by the pandemic, which it will regularly announce.

The committee will continue reviewing developments regarding economic activities, and provide updates on government decisions regarding precautionary and preventive measures to fight the pandemic.

Saudi Arabia announced 27 new COVID-19-related deaths on Tuesday. The death toll now stands at 4,739.

There were 539 new cases reported in the Kingdom, meaning 334,187 people have contracted the disease. There were 10,906 active cases, with 1,005 in critical condition.

According to the Ministry of Health, Jeddah recorded the highest number of cases in the Kingdom with 61, while Makkah reported 53 and Madinah 46.

In addition, 696 more patients have recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries in the Kingdom to 318,542.

Saudi Arabia has so far conducted 6,444,173 PCR tests, with 51,676 conducted in the last 24 hours.