Egypt's emergency rations: Who is poor enough to count?

“Not on your card… not all cards qualify, ma’am.” With that, a worker at a ration distribution outlet shut down any hope Fatma Saad, 67, had of receiving the exceptional grant the prime minister announced for March and April to help millions of families cope with mounting living costs.

After fuel prices rose in early March, the program was extended by two additional months, now set to run through June.

The grant, which does not exceed 400 Egyptian pounds (about $7.80), is not available to all ration card holders. Instead, it is limited to a segment the government has described as “those most in need,” without disclosing the criteria used to identify them.

Al Manassa spoke with several families excluded from the grant. Their incomes and living conditions reflect acute poverty and severe economic strain, raising questions about how eligibility is determined.

Double deprivation below the poverty line

Fatma, who lives in Omraneya in Giza, has no income apart from her late husband’s pension from his work as a government office messenger. She also supports her 34-year-old daughter, who has no stable source of income.

The pension of 4,800 pounds a month (about $94) is meant to sustain both women. Nearly its third goes to rent (1,500 pounds), while a significant share is consumed by the cost of treating three chronic conditions Fatma lives with: high blood pressure, esophagitis and blood clotting irregularities.

Although their combined share of the pension technically places them above the official poverty line, estimated at 857 pounds per person per month, it is crucial to note that this benchmark dates back to 2020. Since then, prices have surged by more than 100% amid successive waves of inflation.

“I can’t afford to buy essentials like oil, pasta and rice all at once. I take them on credit from the kiosk and the greengrocer on our street, then pay it back each month. If I fall short one month, I carry it over to the next,” Fatma said, still unsure why she was excluded from the grant.

Mohamed Bahrawi, a former school janitor in Sharqiya, shares the same confusion about how “priority” households are selected. For the second consecutive year, he has been excluded from similar grants despite facing severe financial hardship.

The government announced that the grant would add 125 pounds per individual to ration cards, and 250 pounds for cards covering more than one person.

“Thank God, no one in our village goes to bed hungry. We look out for each other. Food is expensive, and this month was especially hard. But thank God, my eldest son invited me to break the fast with him every day during Ramadan,” Mohamed said, describing a level of deprivation the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) defines as the inability to afford basic food consumption.

Divorced, disabled, disqualified

When she found no answers at the ration outlet, Reem Mohamed, 54, went to the Supply Directorate in Zagazig, near her home, to ask why she had been excluded. The response from a staff member at the computer desk was blunt: “The selection is random.”

Reem lives on her father’s pension of 6,000 pounds a month (about $118); her only source of income after separating from her husband. She supports a son, who has a mobility impairment hindering him from getting job.

Even with what appears to be a relatively higher pension than others interviewed, the additional 400 pounds could have eased recurring shortfalls. Most of her income is absorbed by basic living expenses. The exclusion, she said, is difficult to reconcile, particularly for divorced and widowed women, who, in her view, “should be the priority.”

Food prices in Egypt have risen faster than wages since mid-2022

Mohamed Mamdouh, 34, belongs to another category that should, in principle, be automatically included: people with disabilities. Yet he, too, found himself excluded without explanation.

Living in Menoufiya with a visual impairment, Mahmoud works for a food products company earning 2,950 pounds a month (about $58). The income does not cover the needs of his wife and 6-year-old child.

“My son got sick before Ramadan. I owed the pharmacy 124 pounds, kind people paid it off,” he said, recounting a pattern of everyday precarity. Even a modest grant, he added, would have made a difference: “There’s nothing that wouldn’t help.”

The same grievance is echoed by Samah Mostafa from Sharqiya. Despite her visual impairment, she was excluded. As a mother of one child, she shares household expenses with her husband, who is currently unemployed. Her salary of 6,000 pounds a month (about $118) as an Arabic language teacher in an Abu Kabir school, does not cover their needs, forcing them to rely on charitable aid.

According to a July 2025 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization, food prices in Egypt have outpaced wage growth since mid-2022.

What happens when support disappears?

Economist Elhami Elmerghany is not surprised by these exclusions. He sees them as consistent with a broader policy. “For years, there has been a move toward scaling back forms of social protection provided to citizens,” he told Al Manassa, pointing to the fact that the cash subsidy allocated to ration cards has remained fixed at 50 pounds since 2017; effectively eroding in value amid staggering inflation and currency depreciation.

This, he argues, has narrowed the real pool of beneficiaries and heightened the importance of temporary top-ups such as the Ramadan grant, especially as inflation tends to spike during that period.

Elmerghany also notes that poorer households increasingly cope with rising food prices by shifting to cheaper, less nutritious options, fueling longer-term public health issues such as stunting among children and rising obesity.

Mai Kabil, a researcher on economic and social rights at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, points to another structural problem: the lack of transparency.

“If we don’t have sufficient data, there is no way to develop the system in a way that better serves people,” she said, stressing the need for accessible grievance mechanisms.

According to government statements, the grant is distributed to around 25 million citizens through ration cards. Yet the most recent poverty figures suggest that nearly one-third of the population—around 40 million people—live below the poverty line.

The Ministry of Supply’s official spokesperson Ahmed Kamal did not respond to Al Manassa's call for commenting via phone and WhatsApp until the time of publication. Attempts to reach the assistant minister for digital services Mohamed Sheta also went unanswered.

In the absence of answers, Fatma’s question lingers quiet and insistent. “How can someone like me be left out? Why us, of all people?” She pauses, then adds, as if to steady herself, “But in the end, our sustenance is in God’s hands.”