The Marriage Fund has called on the youth interested in obtaining grants to apply for them within the set period, i.e. the first six months of the date of marriage contract and one year only from the date of receiving the first installment of the grant, noting that those who have not applied during the set periods have met the other conditions like the salary cap and age etc.
The Fund has decided to link the transactions of the national youth applying for grants with ID cards, noting that the applications of those who have not been issued ID cards yet will be accepted once the registration receipt is presented.
According to Habiba Essa Al Hawsani, Acting Director General of the Marriage Fund, there were cases which actually lost the opportunity of getting a marriage grant because they did not apply by the time set in the Fund’s list of conditions.
In press statements at the Fund’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi yesterday, Al Hawsani revealed that the Fund provides assistance to the disabled to ensure their equality in mass weddings, thereby helping them optimally merge into the society. She pointed out that the Family Guidance and Counseling Department makes it easy for the disabled to attend courses, noting that those with hearing disabilities are provided with booklets on the courses at their domiciles or worksites while those with visual disabilities are provided with CDs containing all the information and fliers on the courses such as the “Edaad” program for preparing those to get married or the beneficiaries from marriage grants. Alternatively, courses may be merged as was the case in an intensive training course for the disabled in Al Ain, she said.
Those who do not meet the conditions are referred to the complaints committee so as to join the mass weddings organized across the UAE in co-ordination with the private sector organizations for offering a support of up to AED22,000 to the married youngster, she added. The Fund received cases of youngsters who were late for applying for marriage grants by the time they were considered although they had no logical reasons or justifications for the delay, she said, noting that some youngsters were late for up to 7 months.
The age condition (minimum of 21 years for young men and 18 years for girls) is a major condition and some applications were rejected because of age as the applicants used to calculate their age based on the Hijri year while the Fund used the Gregorian year for calculating the age, she said.
Al Hawsani announced that the Marriage Fund’s board of directors decided to pay the second installment of this year’s marriage grants early May, calling on the national youth to honor the set conditions, the most important of which included applying for the grant within 6 months from the marriage contract and submitting a legal marriage acknowledgment within one year from the wedding night at the latest.
She explained that according to the Fund’s plan for 2011, grants will be paid in seven annual installments, i.e. one installment each 45 days, so as not to leave the youth on the waiting lists, noting that the first installment was paid by the middle of last February and the second installment would be paid by early May.
Al Hawsani denied the news that the Fund received instructions to increase the grant to AED150,000. She described the news as groundless rumors, saying that no decisions to this effect had been issued.
She reaffirmed that there was no budget deficit between 2008 and this year, noting that no applicants for grants were on the waiting lists and that the amounts of the grants are transferred directly to the accounts of eligible youngsters as soon as the applications had been approved and met the conditions. Applications take around two months to be considered and approved, she said.
The Fund is geared up for a mass wedding in Abu Dhabi by the end of next month while preparations are being made for two mass weddings in Dubai and Fujairah (specifically in Dibba) in the first half of this year, she said, noting that the Fund focused on remote areas in line with the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, which stressed the necessity for organizations to look after remote areas and provide the best services to their inhabitants.
As many as 1,485 youngsters benefited from marriage grants in 2010 and the grants were paid in 7 installments while 66 cases were rejected for violating the conditions and controls set by the Fund, she said, adding that most of these cases were rejected because the applicants’ salaries were higher than the salary cap allowed at the time while a small number of the applicants violated the legal age condition. Al Hawsani pointed out that those who violated the conditions joined the mass weddings by being referred to three committees in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Fujairah, noting that some of these cases were paid bonuses in return for their participation in mass weddings. Examples of these mass weddings included “Abnaa Al Sahel” where AED22,000 were given to each of the participants who were not eligible for marriage grants, and “Awdet Al Qaed” where each youngster was given AED22,000, she said, adding that in 2011, a mass wedding was held in Ras Al Khaimah and in-kind gifts from the emirate’s ruler were distributed.
Al Hawsani reaffirmed that the number of youngsters who were late for submission of applications was not known but the Fund referred these applications to the complaints committee.
“We provide many services including the code number, which is sent by SMS to the mobiles of the youth following their registration through the Fund’s website. This saves the time and effort of the youth and makes it easy to track the applications without the need for them to come to Fund’s headquarters across the UAE.”
Using the numbers of mobile phones shown on the SMS sent to them following their registration through the website, the applicants for marriage grants can inquire about their applications for completion of the missing documents, she said.
Al Hawsani explained that the youth in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah can benefit from the online services for tracking their applications. The inquiry service is being streamlined in the Western Region to serve the applicants there, she added, noting that this step would help them save time and effort and enable them to complete the missing documents via Empost.
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