Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — About 86 percent of Saudi retirees are being paid less than SR2,000 a month, a Shoura Council member said on Monday while discussing the annual report of the Saudi Pension Fund (SPF). Khidir Al-Qurashi doubted the authenticity of the fund's figures claiming that about 87 percent of the retirees were satisfied with its services. “This is an inaccurate figure and I very much doubt its truthfulness and credibility,” he told Makkah on Tuesday. Jabran Al-Qahtani, another member, said retirees are underpaid and added that about 22 percent of them are receiving monthly salaries less than SR3,000. He said about 40 percent of the retirees do not own their own homes and are living in rented apartments. The council also criticized the fund's rules and regulations that have remained the same without change for the past 43 years despite economic and social changes worldwide. It proposed a number of amendments to the fund's regulations to keep up with the current changes. The members called for completely revamping all regulations instead of amending some of them. They asked the fund to increase the monthly pensions paid to retirees and asked the government to increase its support to the fund so retirees could be paid a good pension. Salwa Al-Hazza objected to reducing the retirement age for women to 55 and said this was an early age for women to stop working.
