The Shoura Council on Monday recommended a pay raise of a “decent percentage” for pensioners to help them cope with increasing cost of living in the Kingdom. The recommendation was made during the Council's session here to discuss the yearly report of the Public Pension Agency. The increase, proposed by Council member Khalil Ibrahim, was adopted by an overwhelming 85-27 vote. “The minimum pay of retired government employees is set at SR2,000, which cannot help them in these dreary times,” Ibrahim said. “The members who rejected the recommendation were influenced by the argument of the Pension Agency that it would not be able to deliver if the increase was approved,” he said. But they can deliver, Ibrahim said. “The agency has a surplus of nearly SR15 billion and the increase would not take more than 7 percent of that surplus,” he said. In the session, the council rejected a proposal to lower the minimum age of retirement of women to 50 after 15 years of service. In an earlier session this year, Council member Gen. Muhammad Abu Saq recommended paying 60 percent of a dead employee's salary to his or her inheritors, regardless of their number, but the recommendation failed to pass.
