News Desk
Male’ — The Maldives has amended the rules governing financial assistance for single parents, setting a firm ceiling of MVR 12,000 (about USD 778) a month for mothers or fathers raising children on their own. The adjustment comes just days after the National Social Protection Agency (NSPA) gazetted a new regulation that briefly expanded the benefit, offering MVR 3,000 (about USD 194) per child for up to four children and an additional MVR 1,000 (about USD 65) per child beyond that.
The revised cap, equivalent to MVR 144,000 (about USD 9,341) a year, removes support for children beyond four and standardizes the allowance at MVR 3,000 per child for up to four children. The change takes effect on January 1, 2026, aligning with a presidential pledge to strengthen support for vulnerable families while keeping the program within a predictable fiscal boundary.
The recalibration lands within a broader social protection landscape that is unusually comprehensive for a small island nation, supported by a state that provides free education from Grade 1 through university — including textbooks and stationery — as part of its long‑standing commitment to taking care of its people.
The Maldives stands out in South Asia—and even among Small Island Developing States—for embedding social protection as a constitutional right. The country’s rights‑based approach is not rhetorical; it has shaped spending patterns for more than a decade. Social expenditures remain among the highest in the region, reaching roughly 15 percent of GDP in 2019, with health and pensions absorbing a significant share.
At the centre of this system is universal health coverage, introduced through the National Social Health Insurance Act of 2008. The scheme, now known as Husnuvaa Aasandha, covers every Maldivian for medications, diagnostics, consultations, and inpatient care at government facilities. For a country of its economic scale, the breadth of coverage is striking out‑of‑pocket health spending is the lowest in South Asia, and the system remains one of the few in the region that is both universal and genuinely accessible. Among SIDS, only a handful have achieved anything comparable.
The National Social Protection Act of 2014 further consolidated programs and reduced fragmentation, while the Child Rights Protection Act of 2019 strengthened the legal scaffolding around children’s welfare, including birth registration—an essential gateway to benefits.
The Maldives has long kept unusually comprehensive civil records for a country of its size, becoming the first in South Asia to introduce a national ID system. That infrastructure is now entering a new phase: beginning next year, under Maldives 2.0, all national ID cards will be fully digitalized, allowing citizens to access state benefits and services through a unified digital identity.
Today, the NSPA administers seven major non‑contributory programs: the Old Age Basic Pension, the Disability Allowance Programme, the Single Parent Allowance, the Foster Parent Allowance, the Food Subsidy Programme, Husnuvaa Aasandha, and Medical Welfare. Together, they form a safety net that is unusually comprehensive for a dispersed island nation of half a million people.
Eligibility for the Single Parent Allowance is determined through categorical and means‑tested criteria, including income thresholds, marital status, and whether children reside with the parent. Exceptions exist for widows and for parents whose spouses are imprisoned. The allowance is conditional, tied to children’s school attendance, reflecting the state’s long‑standing emphasis on education—another area where the Maldives posts near‑universal enrolment and literacy.
The latest amendment to the allowance signals a government attempting to balance expanding social commitments with fiscal discipline. But it also reflects something more enduring: a national consensus that social protection is not a luxury but a right, and that even in a geographically fragmented archipelago, the state’s obligations must reach every island.
For the Maldives, the conversation is less about whether to provide universal coverage and more about how to sustain it. That, too, sets the country apart in its region—and among small island states navigating similar pressures.
