A total of AED17,859,829 in outstanding debts spread across 82 cases will be paid off under a new order from Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah.
The payout is meant to lift the weight of unpaid obligations from citizens and keep their families on stable footing. It stems from the Ruler’s standing instruction that Sharjah’s citizens be given the means to live in dignity.
The order comes only weeks after a far larger revision of the emirate’s allowance system. Under that package, which came into force in September, the monthly dignified-living allowance rose to AED20,000, a change projected to cost the government upward of AED1.187 billion every year.
Sharjah Government staff account for the biggest portion of that bill. Some 17,776 employees are in line for the increase, which by itself will run to more than AED720 million annually.
The same decision reached households that depend on state aid. The minimum allowance was raised for 6,652 families on the Sharjah Government’s social assistance rolls, at roughly AED195.1 million a year, while 2,251 retirees from the Sharjah Government saw their allowance go up at an estimated yearly cost of AED113.1 million.
Support for the emirate’s most vulnerable residents had already been boosted at the start of the year. In January, Sheikh Sultan set monthly social support at AED17,500 for 4,237 cases handled by the Sharjah Social Services Department, at a cost of AED404.9 million a year. Elderly citizens formed the largest group at 3,126, followed by 877 divorced women, 134 widows and 100 people on low incomes.
That January directive also took up 560 requests for employment and 672 cases tied to housing rent, and ordered follow-up on pending applications to build homes throughout Sharjah.
Another 5,300 citizens who retired from employers outside the Sharjah Government and receive supplementary grants were also brought under the September increase, with their portion set at AED159 million a year.
