Government | Sunday 31 December, 2017 10:45 am |

The Citizen Account program allows Saudi women to enlist themselves as family providers under certain conditions.

In cases where the husband is not a Saudi, if he is absent, imprisoned or held in a social care home and if she has been deserted, a Saudi woman may register as the family provider in the program. All she has to do is to submit supporting documents through the program’s portal.

The program was created to help the needy families with financial aid, which will be deposited in the bank account of a family's breadwinner.

The family provider may be a man or a woman so long as they are 18 years old.

Individuals seeking financial aid should be older than 24 years old. If an individual is between 18 and 24, he or she must submit documents proving that they live independently and away from the family’s home.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labor and Social Development has said applicants to the Citizen Account program have 15 days to update any information they have filed. Failure to do so will be considered as submitting incorrect information, which is a punishable under the law.

Applicants who have submitted false information will have their applications rejected and will be banned from receiving any financial aid provided by the program for two years. The program will also retrieve any aid given to them in the past.

The ministry considers entering false information as a financial crime as the applicant may be receiving financial aid when he or she does not fit the criteria set by the ministry. That in turn deprives applicants who are in real need of the financial aid.