137,000 Households Receive Cost-of-Living Allowance

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

More than 137,000 households receive Bahrain’s cost-of-living allowance, MPs were told on Tuesday, with Social Development Minister Osama Al Alawi saying eligibility is capped at BD1,000 a month for the head of household, while other support schemes have no income ceiling.

In Parliament, Al Alawi said the ministry’s two biggest direct cash schemes were the Social Security Service and the Financial Support Service, known as the cost-of-living allowance. He said every social security beneficiary receives the allowance ‘automatically’.

‘Any adjustment to the three categories of the cost-of-living allowance benefits social security categories automatically,’ he said. Most social security beneficiaries, he added, receive the top band of BD130 a month, alongside their social security payments.

He pointed to the latest changes in December 2025, when the allowance bands were raised to BD130, BD97 and BD75 a month. An earlier rise came in January 2022, when cash support paid under the social security and financial support schemes increased by 10 per cent, he said.

Al Alawi told MPs that February 2026 figures show 137,984 beneficiary applications across the three allowance bands. He said the ceiling for entitlement is based on the head of household’s salary, up to BD1,000 a month.

He said social assistance provided by the ministry is governed by Law No. 18 of 2006 and its amendments, which provides monthly cash payments to Bahraini families and individuals, alongside automatic entitlement to the cost-of-living allowance. February figures, he said, show 17,710 beneficiary applications across categories set out in the law, including widows, divorcees, orphans, families of prisoners, those unable to work, persons with disabilities and older people.

‘Some beneficiaries combine more than one programme at the same time,’ he said, adding that receiving one benefit does not prevent citizens from receiving others, such as the disability allowance and cash compensation paid after the lifting of the meat subsidy.

He said some schemes are not tied to income. The meat-subsidy compensation programme has no salary-based ceiling, he said, with February figures showing 192,530 beneficiary applications. Disability allowances are also not linked to salary, he added, with 15,558 beneficiary applications recorded in the latest figures. The allowance is BD100 a month for general disabilities, or a doubled payment for severe disability cases, paid under criteria set out in a 2023 ministerial decision, he said.

Al Alawi said different rules apply across support schemes. ‘Each support programme has its own criteria, conditions and target groups,’ he said, adding that the aim is to ensure support reaches ‘the most needy groups fairly’.

He also thanked MPs for what he described as close communication with the ministry on citizen cases. ‘This close contact, which is often through daily calls, has produced solutions that respond to the needs of many citizens, sometimes immediately,’ he said.

Al Alawi said the ministry’s work covers social assistance, services for persons with disabilities, care for older people, the Child Protection Centre, family counselling and support for civil society groups. ‘The ministry’s doors are open to everyone,’ he said.