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Join on Telegram Rabat – Moroccan Head of Government, Abdelilah Benkirane, said on Tuesday that the retirement age will be lifted to 63 by 2019 instead of 60.
The pension reform bill presented by the government proposes to gradually raise the retirement age to 63 by 2019.
The current retirement age is 61 and the government proposes to raise this starting January 1, 2017 to 62 in January 1, 2018. Starting in January 1, 2019 the retirement age will be 63.
Benkirane announced this before the House of Representatives at the monthly meeting on the general policy of the government.
The proposal comes amid the controversy surrounding the pension benefits of ministers and parliamentarians.
A petition launched earlier this week calls on King Mohammed VI to repeal the decree. It states that Ministers and MPs benefit from an “unfair” lifetime pension immediately at the end of their small mandates.
The petition was launched by Moroccan Activist Mayssa Salama Ennaji and points out that several ministers’ scandals made headlines worldwide, but they will still have retirements despite their “proven scandals.”
This comes following the remarks made by Moroccan Minister Delegate to the Minister of Energy, Charafat Afilal, during a TV show aired on Moroccan TV channel Al Oula.
When asked whether Minister and MPs deserve to benefit from a pension that’s above the average pension allocated to other Moroccans, the Ministers said that was “populist debate that does not deserve attention.”
Her comments caused an uproar on social media, with thousands of Moroccans communicating on Facebook and Twitter calling for her resignation and to open up a debate on Ministers’ and MPs’ retirement benefits.
