No funds in 2024-2025 budgets for all social protection applicants: Iraqi PM Advisor

Shafaq News / The 2024 and 2025 budgets do not include financial allocations to cover all applicants to the social welfare network, the Social Protection Advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister, Sanaa Al-Moussawi, confirmed on Thursday.

Al-Moussawi told Shafaq News Agency, "Around two million people have applied for social protection, and nearly 1.2 million individuals or families have been visited by the social researcher."

“The financial allocations needed to include all applicants amount to more than one trillion dinars (approximately $690 million), a sum that is not available in the budget law," she pointed out.

The advisor added, "Efforts are underway to allocate funds and make financial transfers in the 2025 budget to include around 300,000 applicants in the social protection salary program.”

“The remaining applicants will be covered by the network in the coming years."

On Wednesday, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ahmed Al-Asadi announced the release of a new batch of social protection benefits for 61,000 families, including 49,000 people with disabilities and 11,000 children with diabetes.

This brings the total number of beneficiaries to 2.4 million.