Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — A total of 405,418 people benefit from 147,494 family pension accounts of deceased public servants, according to the Public Pension Agency. A source from the agency told Al-Hayat newspaper that there had been a 7 percent increase (26,947) in the number of family pension beneficiaries last year. He said daughters of the deceased make up 40.5 percent of the beneficiaries while 28.3 percent are widows and 24 percent sons. The rest of the beneficiaries constitute other legal heirs of the deceased. The number of daughters increased by 8.7 percent from last year and the number of widows increased by 6.5 percent, said the source. The number of male beneficiaries increased by 9.8 percent from last year. The source also said the majority of the beneficiaries are under 20. The second largest category of beneficiaries is widows and most of them are aged above 59 years. The source said the agency allocated SR506.3 billion of its budget toward family pensions, an increase of SR50.1 billion, or 10.7 percent, over the previous year.
