Citizen's Account

The Citizen's Account Program is a program that provides financial support from the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to its citizens. Its purpose is to protect Saudi families from the direct and indirect impacts expected from various economic reforms, which might impose additional burdens on some societal segments. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development supervises the Citizen's Account. The support is in the form of payments directly transferred from the state to the bank accounts of the benefiting household heads and eligible individuals.

The Citizen's Account Program was implemented, beginning with the receipt of registration requests and depositing the first installment on December 21, 2017.

The allowances from the Citizen's Account are paid according to Gregorian months, not from the registration date. For instance, if the beneficiary registers for the program on July 27, the first month of entitlement begins on August 10, as the program sets the tenth of every Gregorian month as the deposit date.

The Citizen's Account Program covers the expected increase in monthly basic product and service costs due to economic reforms. This includes costs resulting from the VAT on food and beverages and increases in electricity and petrol bills due to energy price corrections. ‏

The support mechanism in the Citizen's Account requires beneficiaries to register their details on the unified electronic platform, www.ca.gov.sa. Afterward, it is reviewed according to conditions and standards set for government support entitlement.

The dedicated online portal for the program is the sole platform for receiving registration requests and communicating with beneficiaries. Here, the head of the household creates an account through the online portal, provides the required information for themselves and their dependents, and attaches any necessary documents if applicable.

The entitlement value is estimated using the calculator option on the electronic platform, based on the number of family members, their ages, and total family income. The income is verified through a mechanism linked to several data-collecting entities and is also compared to disclosed data.

The Citizen's Account Program is one of the measures of the Financial Balance Program (currently, the Fiscal Sustainability Program), launched by the Council of Ministers on December 22, 2016, as part of the executive programs to achieve Saudi Vision 2030.

In 2020, the Citizen's Account Program announced the application of modified support criteria. The modifications included the suspension of receiving any new requests after the support payment date for cycle twenty-eight in March 2020. This encompasses those who applied before that date but did not complete the registration procedures or those whose eligibility was not reviewed. The only exception is adding dependents for current beneficiaries until the criteria are reviewed in the future.

On July 4, 2022, the Citizen's Account Program received additional support. A Royal Order was issued approving the allocation of financial support amounting to SAR20 billion to address the implications of global price increases. The order of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ensured the reopening of registration in the Citizen's Account Program according to previously announced criteria. An allocation of SAR8 billion was set as additional financial support for beneficiaries of the Citizen's Account Program until the end of the fiscal year 2022, based on the previously announced criteria.

On January 10, 2023, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz directed the continuation of the additional support provided to the beneficiaries of the Citizens' Account program for an additional three months until the payment batch of March 2023, in addition to keeping the registration for the program open.

On April 9, 2023, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud directed the continuation of the Citizens' Account program along with the temporary additional support for the beneficiaries of the program for an additional four months until the payment batch of July 2023, in addition to keeping the registration for the program open.

On August 2, 2023, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud directed the continuation of the Citizens' Account program along with the temporary additional support for the beneficiaries of the program for an additional two months until the payment batch of September 2023, in addition to keeping the registration for the program open.

On October 8, 2023, a generous Royal Directive was issued to continue the implementation of the Citizens' Account program, to keep the registration open, and to provide additional financial support to the program beneficiaries for a period of three months until the December 2023 payment batch. The generous Royal Directive also included authorizing the Citizens' Account Committee to add specifications aimed at enhancing the efficiency of support, ensuring its delivery, and directing it to the most deserving categories.

On the same day, the Citizens' Account Program clarified that, based on the generous Royal Directive, specifications have been added aimed at enhancing the efficiency of support, ensuring its delivery, and directing it to the most deserving categories. The specifications, which began to be implemented starting from the October 2023 payment, included modifying the maximum support limit provided by the program. Support for families consisting of six individuals (the head of the household and dependents over eighteen years old, and three dependents under eighteen years old) shall not exceed, in addition to adjusting the income cap preventing eligibility for support, with the total income of the beneficiary and their family not exceeding SAR20,000. Furthermore, adjustments were made to the reduction threshold accordingly.

On January 01, 2024, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques directed the continuation of the Citizen Account Program, along with the provision of additional support to the program beneficiaries until the end of 2024, in addition to keeping the program registration open. The provision of additional support comes as an extension of the generous Royal Directives since July 2022.