Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — About 47 percent of the government employees retired before turning 50, Al-Madina newspaper reported on Monday quoting a statistical report issued by the Saudi Pension Fund (SPF). The report said 20.8 percent of the retirees were aged 45-49 years, 12.7 percent were 40-44 and 7.4 percent were 35-39. It said about 32 percent of the government employees have opted to go on early retirement while about seven percent of them were forced to retire for health reasons. The statistics said beneficiaries from pension money were 390,000, including 157,487 daughters who constituted 40 percent of the beneficiaries, followed by wives (27 percent) and sons (24 percent). The SPF said as of the end of 2014, there were 617,070 men and women government retirees. It said 460,280 retirees are still alive while 156,790 of them died after leaving government jobs. The fund said in the fiscal year 2013-2014, an amount of SR45.3 billion was paid in pension money. The SPF said the 45-49 and 50-54 age groups accounted for 43.3 percent of the retirees. Under the Civil Service law, any government employee can apply for early retirement if he or she spends 25 years in the service.
