Sunday 05 / January / 2025
Muscat: The Social Protection Fund will be responsible for all societal protection initiatives and programmes in the Sultanate of Oman, said Dr. Saif bin Musabah Al-Mutairi, a member of the retirement and social protection restructuring project team.
Speaking exclusively to Times of Oman’s sisterly Radio channel Al Shabiba, he said that it is an administrative and financial independent entity established by Royal Decree No. (33/2021).
He clarified that the mission is to implement the provisions of the Social Protection Law and related legislation, and to cooperate with the authorities concerned for empowerment, integration, care and support to the deserving groups.
He added that this programme will continue to be supervised by the Ministry of Social Development, while the Social Security Programme will be replaced by the currently administered Social Protection Fund.
He explained that based on the Social Protection Law, the legislation mentioned in Article 6 of the law will be implemented from the beginning of the law’s issuance.
He stated that in all systems the period of service required for early voluntary retirement should be replaced by 30 years, with the exception of those who have completed 20 years of service on the date of issuance of the Social Protection Law, and thus the legislation of April 2021 decided the date of entry into force of the new retirement requirements.
Therefore, Article 6 of the Royal Decree on the Social Protection Law refutes articles to be implemented from the first day of the law’s promulgation, he added.
He added that Articles 83 and 84 are also in effect from the first day of the law’s promulgation, and they are concerned with rewards for loss of a retirement pension, meaning that the previous systems have certain retirement requirements that may remove a person from the retirement programme without obtaining a pension and be given a reward for losing the pension.
He explained that based on the current system no insured person will leave without a retirement pension, even if the period of service is interrupted to preserve people’s rights through Articles 83 and 84, which stipulate that the interruption of the service period does not lead to the loss of the retirement pension, just as the systems do not require the payment of reward for the loss of the retirement pension.
He clarified that for example, if a person appointed in the civil service sector or any other fund at the age of 51 years completes his service period till the age of 60 years, he has only 9 years of service. According to the previous system, the person is not entitled to a retirement pension despite reaching the normal retirement age, and is paid a reward for losing the retirement pension.
However, according to the new system, the same person is entitled to a retirement pension for the nine years of service, and is not paid a reward for losing the pension.
He added that in the case of a 20-year-old employed person in the civil service or any other fund, when he reaches the age of 30, he submits a resignation at his place of work. So according to the previous system, the person is not entitled to a retirement pension for the years of service he spent and is paid a reward for losing the pension only, he said.
Thus, based on the previous two examples, people’s insurance rights are not forfeited.
On Article No. (6) of the Social Protection Law, which states that “the age of the elderly, starting from the date of implementation of the provisions of this law, is raised at an average rate of one year every 7 years until he reaches the age of 65, and the specified age for the elderly is reviewed every (5 years after he reaches the age of 65, according to estimates of life expectancy at birth.
Dr. Saif said that based on the foundations of the retirement insurance programme that insures the person against a certain risk, and in this article it insures the person with regard to old age and lack of earning ability, and because of the progress of health services, the average lifespan has increased around the world and people have the ability to work for longer years than before.
Therefore, the costs of retirement programmes in general depend on insurance risks while calculating the costs of these programmes, it is taken into account that the retirement programme was able to comply with the costs of the programme and its contributions.
Stressing that this article allows the pension programme for a period of 35 years, with an automatic escalation in the retirement age so that the value of participation in the programme does not increase, meaning that the change will begin after 2031, with the age of the elderly starting from 61 years instead of 60 years, However, this is subject to many considerations and the approval of the Council of Ministers.
On Article (13) of the Social Protection Law, which states that “the Council shall organise and determine the date of implementation of the provisions of the first-time job seekers benefit, the maternity benefit, the social health insurance branch and any other benefits or insurance branches that are approved, in accordance with the rules and conditions that a decision is issued by the Council after the approval of the Council of Ministers,” Dr. Saif said that these two benefits have been approved, and what remains is only to determine the time of maturity and organise its mechanism, based on the fact that the Social Protection Law took care of all life risks and did not overlook any of them, and the legislator confirmed them to be among the benefits that the social protection system undertakes, based on the priority and the amount of budgets and resources available to launch the system and start with the most socially impactful and sustainable benefits.
On Clause No. (3) in Article No. (39) of the Social Protection Law, which states that “the total family income should be less than the level specified in accordance with the provision of Article (40) of this law,” Dr. Saif said that in general, after the family receives all the individual benefits due to it and after calculating the family income, there may be families that require additional support until they reach the target income specified in Article 40 of the law and published in the form of a target income table, which represents OMR115 for a family consisting of only one member, and any family larger than one member takes the square root of the number of family members multiplied by 115, and the family in the application of the family income support benefit includes both husband and wife and non-working children up to reaching 26 years, and non-working girls who have not reached 40 years if they are unmarried or divorced and do not have children, and fostered children are considered as sons in forming a family.
Dr. Saif explained that with regard to widows, the entitlement conditions are that whether a widow is an Omani or a resident, as well as for orphans who are Omani, resident, father or mother or both, and in both cases the maximum benefit is OMR 80, and in the event that the widow or orphan receives a death pension, the difference is given if his share is less than the targeted amount.
Regarding divorced women, Dr. Saif explained that this category requires a study of the case of the divorced woman and her economic and social status, and is not excluded from the law, as it was mentioned in Article 41 of the law, which stipulates that “any of the following cases shall be considered a divorced woman who has no children, and who has reached the age of (40) years or more, and an unmarried woman who is (40) years or more.”
He added that the social protection system was designed on the basis of not creating counter incentives that lead to undesirable social phenomena, such as divorce, which is an undesirable incentive and other cases that require a case study to be included in the family support benefit.
Regarding the Omanis working in the GCC countries, Dr. Saif stated that based on the agreement of the leaders of the Gulf countries under the name of extending insurance protection to the citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, which stipulates that the citizens are subject to the laws and regulations of the home country of the worker.
Regarding the end of service reward, Dr. Saif explained that based on Article 4 of the decree promulgating the Social Protection Law, which indicated that “the provisions related to the end of service award or grant disbursed by employers shall continue to be applied,” and thus the end of service reward will continue as it is without any change under the Social Protection Law, as it falls within the employment relations.
Dr. Saif pointed out that the subscription rate for the employee’s contribution to insurance did not change and remained the same (8%); However, in the past, some sectors deducted the percentage of contribution from some salary allowances in addition to the basic salary, and thus the salary subject to participation is not the total salary, but the basic salary plus some allowances only.
He added that, based on the new law, contributions and retirement dues will be calculated from the employee’s total salary, in order to preserve the employee’s rights, so that his insurance will be based on his total salary and not on the basic salary and some allowances only, and thus the deduction rate may be slightly increased due to the change in the method of deduction, in the interest of the employee in the end, and the new method of deduction starts from the end of January 2024.
