Urgent move to reinstate housing requests struck off over pay rises

TDT | Manama

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Parliament has urgently agreed to a proposal calling for the reinstatement of housing applications struck off when applicants’ salaries rose above the allowed limit.

The plan, tabled by Hamad Al Doy and four other MPs, demands that affected applications be restored to their original submission year, without treating them as new cases or sending them through new checks.

MPs say this would keep families from losing years they had already waited, and would help put right a rule that punishes people for bettering their circumstances.

“The housing file in the Kingdom is riddled with gaps that affect citizens’ ability to access housing services, whether through units, the Mazaya programme, Tas’heel or other schemes,” Al Doy said during the debate. “If a citizen’s salary reaches 1,200 dinars, their application is cancelled, setting them back to square one. We call on the Ministry of Housing to reinstate these applications without forcing citizens to start over.”

Cost

Urgency was pinned to the rising strain on families left without homes, as well as the cost of new builds and private homes, which most households can no longer meet.

MPs said that while public spending on housing needs to be kept in check, including by cutting housing allowances, this must not come at the cost of fairness for people who have worked to climb the ladder and seen their pay rise as a result.