compass – monitor

It is expected that the annual increase in pension salaries for the current year will reach seven dinars for old age, total natural disability and death pensioners, provided that they are spent next May.

The increase in pension salaries is linked to inflation rates and wage growth rates, and is calculated on the lowest percentage for the previous year of the year of increase.

According to the Department of Statistics, the inflation rate for 2022 was (4.2%), while wage growth rates are expected to reach (2.6%), on which the annual increase for retirees will be calculated.

The General Organization for Social Security took a decision three years ago to calculate the increase in all pension salaries and divide it equally among the retirees.

This increase has become a legal entitlement stipulated in the Security Law since 2010, and its aim is to preserve the capacity of pension salaries and the purchasing power of pension salaries.

According to insurance and social protection expert Musa Al-Subaihi, the increase in inflation does not need to be issued with a defense order at all, because it is increased within a specific mechanism in the Insurance Law, and it is linked either to the inflation rate recorded in the Kingdom for a previous year or to the annual growth rate of the average wages of the insured for a previous year as well. The lower of the two percentages for the purposes of this increase, then the total cost of the increase is calculated for the eligible retirees and then distributed to them equally as one value starting from the May salary and not exceeding twenty dinars as a higher ceiling.

He said that this is what was stipulated in the insurance law, and its approval does not require the issuance of any decision, whether by the cabinet, the prime minister, or even by the board of directors of the insurance institution.

Al-Subaihi explained that the inflation rate registered in the Kingdom last year amounted to about (4.2%), while the annual growth rate of average wages is estimated at about (2.6%).