Khabar Khair (Only Good News) – Abdul Jalil Al-Salami

      Social insurance system is one of the social protection mechanisms that contribute to insure a sense of security and social economic stability for insured persons and families by paying pensions and indemnities in Yemen.

    An employee shall receive a retirement pension when working for 35 years or when reaching the age of sixty while still working, as social insurance is one of the rights provided by law and international and local agreements.

     The institutional structure of Yemen ‘s official social insurance system consists of four institutions: The General Insurance and Pensions Authority, The General Organization for Social Insurance, Internal Security Pension Fund, and the Military Pension Fund.

    Social Insurance Institutions play a vital role in protecting insured persons by providing risks of old age, disability, death, and work injuries insurances.

    There is no unemployment insurance for the working-age population, and this reflects the clear shortcomings in the insurance services available to the insured persons even before the war.

The General Insurance and Pensions Authority plays a pivotal role in achieving social security as a social umbrella for civil servants and public and mixed sectors. and supports state’s economic and social comprehensive development plans by investing cash surpluses.

    According to The General Insurance and Pensions Authority’s latest report 2015-2019, number of insured persons has increased from 600,000 beneficiaries in 2015 to 603,000 beneficiaries in 2019, and the cumulative number of retirees has increased from 121.9 thousand to 123 thousand retirees.

    While the annual reports of The General Insurance and Pensions Authority showed a growing number of insured persons in The General Insurance and Pensions Authority from 407,7 thousand beneficiaries in 2015 to 447.2 thousand beneficiaries in 2019, and the number of retirees increased slightly from 11.2 thousand retirees to 12.4 thousand retirees.

    According to The Military Pensions Department data, number of military retirees are about 154 thousand and 14 beneficiaries, distributed between the northern governorates by 60.7% and by 39.3% in the southern governorates, more over retirees, disabled people, deaths, and martyrs were covered by insurance.

    Insurance businesses in Yemen dates to 60 years ago, when employees in Aden were demanding providing insurance until it got through several stages in the south and north of the country to where it is now.