Finance Ministry has brought amendments to the income support allowance policy which has been introduced to support financial assistance for individuals who were negatively impacted by the ongoing pandemic.
Income Support Allowance has been introduced to help the Maldivian citizens of whose job employment has been affected amid pandemic and to help them manage the day to day expenses.
According to the new policy, individuals whose sources of income has been affected since December 2019, can now apply for income support allowance. Previously, only the people whose employment has been affected since March 2020 were eligible for income support allowance.
Under this, employees who have been suspended, put on no-pay leave, and employees whose salary has been cut less are eligible for the Income Support Allowance. It has been decided to provide employees under this category with MVR 5000 and employees whose salary has been cut to an amount less than 5000, will receive the amount deducted from MVR 5000.
Individuals are only eligible for this scheme if they are Maldivian citizens who live in the country. The person must also be between 18 and 65 years of age. More conditions under the income support allowance policy include agreeing to participate and complete skills development programs organized by the government and showing interest in employment while agreeing to take a job if offered from the job center.
According to the statistics published by the finance ministry, till the 2nd of August 2020, MVR 35.1 million has been disbursed to 84888 individuals. Under the income support allowance scheme, the government has decided to disburse MVR 5000 for individuals whose employment has been affected amid pandemic. The duration of the scheme has now been extended until September 2020.
