In a meeting with the board of the Family Care Fund, Minister of Social Solidarity Nevine Al-Qabbaj discussed a proposal to enhance the fund, develop its resources, and how to integrate it with the ministry’s social protection programmes.

High on the list of priorities was how to ensure the payment of court-ordered alimony to its beneficiaries, Hisham Wahid, director of the Expenditure Department at Nasser Social Bank and head of the fund, told Al-Ahram Weekly.

The fund, established according to Law 11/2004, is affiliated to Nasser Social Bank. It provides financial support to wives, children, parents, and others who have received temporary or final judicial alimony rulings, Wahid said.

Beneficiaries for whom breadwinners have stopped providing financial support must provide a copy of the court ruling to the bank, along with their ID card and information about the individual against whom the ruling was issued.

The fund will then disburse the alimony, with a maximum of LE500, to the beneficiary in the following month. The fund will then collect the whole sum from the non-complying party and pay the rest to the beneficiary, Wahid added.

Since its inception until the end of June 2023, the fund has disbursed LE7 billion to 512,000 beneficiaries. However, it has succeeded in recovering only half the amount from 350,000 abstainers, he noted.

Wahid said the fund does not only help divorced women and children. It also assists fathers and mothers who lack a source of livelihood and whose children refuse to support them. Currently, the fund provides monthly aid to over 3,000 cases, including 1,600 fathers and 1,700 mothers.

The first step in the fund’s development plan is to raise the maximum alimony payment, with LE500 being insufficient to meet living expenses, Wahid said. However, “we are waiting for the issuance of the new personal status law, which will determine many aspects regarding alimony.”

Raising the maximum alimony limit requires developing additional resources, a process contingent upon the passing of the new personal status law to ensure there is no conflict between the law and the fund’s development plan. Currently, the fund’s resources are generated from a LE100 fee for each marriage or divorce certificate and a LE3 fee for each copy of a birth certificate, which is issued free of charge the first time, Wahid said.

These resources remain insufficient and the fund is expected to face a complete deficit within a year, he stated.

The Family Care Fund has in fact been facing an annual deficit since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the last year, the deficit amounted to LE96.5 million, Wahid added.

In response to these challenges, Al-Qabbaj has directed the formation of a committee from the General Administration of Alimony to follow up on arrears owed by debtors who refuse to pay. The committee will conduct field visits and work according to an action plan with specific performance indicators. A work guide has been prepared for the fund, encompassing all relevant laws, regulations and instructions. Additionally, a series of workshops have been held to enhance the skills of alimony workers in investigating applicants’ cases and providing better customer service.

Efforts are also being made to increase the rate of debt collection through prosecution reports against alimony debtors who refuse to pay, in addition to issuing warnings and filing reports with police departments.

Al-Qabbaj suggested the need to audit databases in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Solidarity and the Administrative Control Authority through a unified database to integrate services with the ministry’s social protection programmes, ensuring that the most vulnerable citizens receive maximum benefits.

The committee concluded that it is essential to link the fund’s development and resource enhancement strategies with the provisions of the proposed new personal status law to secure a basic income for the fund’s clients and ensure they receive their entitlements to health and educational support in coordination with relevant ministries and bodies.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 4 July, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly