Social Insurance Organisation (SIO) CEO Eman Mustafa Al Murbati announced that a six per cent retroactive pension increase of retirees from January 2021 to April 2022 have been deposited in their accounts, as per the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

The directives align with reforms to the retirement and social insurance pensions.

The CEO expressed her gratitude to His Majesty King Hamad for ratifying and promulgating Law No. 13/2022 amending some provisions of Law No. 13/1975 on the pension and retirement benefits for government employees, and Law No. 14/2022 on amending provisions of the Social Insurance Law issued by Decree-Law 24/1976, following the approval of the Shura and Representatives Councils.

She thanked HRH Prince Salman for his attention to retirees’ rights and enhancing the sustainability of pension funds.

Ms Al Murbati praised the legislative branch’s co-operation with the government in approving the pension reforms that culminated in disbursing an increase of three per cent for retirees for the past two years.

She explained that the increase included all pensions paid to beneficiaries of the deceased as well, with a total of more than 95,000 retirees and citizens qualifying for the rise.

The amounts were retroactively deposited in their accounts with the pensions of the current month.

They will be disbursed monthly from May.She pointed out that the increase will be disbursed at a rate of 3pc for 2021 and 2022, but will not exceed BD30.