MP Seeks Pension Cover for Self-Employed Workers

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Self-employed Bahrainis who reach 60 with no pension would be helped through unemployment insurance surpluses, under a proposal by MP Maryam Al Sayegh to cover small traders, craftsmen, fishermen, driving instructors and others who work for themselves.

The plan would also require all self-employed workers to join the social insurance system, giving them pension cover while adding more payers to the funds.

Al Sayegh said many such workers had spent years earning on their own, only to be left with no retirement income after illness, living costs or personal hardship forced them to close their commercial registrations or stop work.

She said the proposal was aimed at Bahrainis who had worked for years outside standard jobs but were left without a safety net in old age.

“This group is not marginal,” she said. ‘They are fathers and mothers who spent their lives in honest work and contributed to building the economy.’

Under the proposal, part of the accumulated surplus in the unemployment insurance account would be used to create an exceptional fund or temporary national programme for self-employed Bahrainis with no pension cover.

Al Sayegh said the scheme would not add to the state budget because it would be funded from surplus money built up through citizens’ contributions.