Citizens express dismay at PAHW measure

Authority threatens to cut off rent allowance

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 17: While the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) has affirmed that the rent allowance will be ‘cut off’ for those who have failed to update their data for more than two years, a number of citizens have expressed dismay and surprise at this new measure – the measure that was never before applied, reports Al-Rai daily.

The citizens are wondering about the purpose of this measure, which disrupts their interests in spite of the fact that PAHW is linked to all official authorities in the country and can have access to all information it wants.

Ibrahim Al-Nashi, spokesman of the authority told the daily PAHW has a procedure to suspend the rent allowance for the beneficiaries if their data is not updated for more than two years, pointing out this procedure is done routinely, in order to determine the effectiveness of the citizens’ entitlement and know if they reside in the country.

Informed sources told the daily PAHW did not activate the procedure of stopping the rent allowance for citizens in the past, despite the existence of a decision which confirms the importance of updating the data of the rent allowance.

The sources added that the problem is that PAHW had not take any action in the area of stopping the rent allowance, and did not request to update the data despite the fact it can be done through several means and suddenly it has come with an illogical solution which saw a flurry of activity from the citizens who were busy posting audio messages to alert others.

One of the citizens posted an audio recording calling on the Kuwaitis who benefit from rent allowance to go to the Public Authority for Housing Welfare and update their data on the rent allowance, so as not to be caught by surprise to see their rent allowance cut off which would increase the family problems.