Household expenses eat up 120% of head of family’s monthly pay: expert

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KUWAIT CITY, Sept 8: Consumer behavior consultant Salah Al-Jemez affirmed that the head of an average family in Kuwait spends about 120 percent of his monthly salary for household expenses during regular months when there are no festivals.

Therefore, many families are forced to borrow money to cover the deficit in income and expenditures, reports Al-Qatar daily. Al-Jemez explained that average expenses of a family during Eid Al-Adha holidays range from KD 750 to KD 1,500 including recreational activities and Eid shopping.

An average family spends almost KD 70 during a normal weekend. He indicated that nine-day Eid holidays are very rare because it is almost a third of one month. Since the holiday is long, many people prefer to leave the country or stay in the chalets to avoid Eid expenses, which eventually multiply their expenses.

Al-Jemez stressed that people no longer spend money on just essential needs like in the 1970s when people used to spend less than 70 percent of their salaries because there were no many recreational activities.

However, recreation now requires fund. He revealed that families used to spend about five percent of salaries for transportation before the fuel hike and this expense has now increased to around 7-7.5 percent of their salaries.

Meanwhile, the Audit Bureau expressed satisfaction on Thursday for submitting legal suits against senior civil servants affirming such legal action boosts its task of combating any form of manipulation with State financial interests.

The Diwan said in a statement that some State departments used to ignore its pleas to conduct serious investigations into defects and personnel’s irregularities, uncovered by by the Diwan.

It quoted Justice Salah Al-Mes’ed, the chief of Fatwa and Legislation Department and the head of the penal commission charged with punitive prosecutions, as saying that ruling at this level “affirms principle of sovereignty of laws and protection of public funds.”

This approach is aimed at “striking strongly at any manifestations of administrative corruption and misappropriation of public funds,” he stressed. The commission held a session on Wednesday, cross examining libel suits against a number of senior personnel in the public sector including State-owned companies, under the Diwan’s jurisdictions.

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