Around 431,000 widows are expected to benefit from the government’s proposed measure. “Household expenses do not fall by half when a husband dies,” Fouzi Lekjaa said, explaining the rationale for allowing widows to continue receiving their late spouses’ full pensions.
The minister said the measure would cost the state MAD 7.3 billion annually. The aim is to enable affected families to maintain the income they received while the deceased spouse was alive.
Lekjaa stressed that pension funds would not bear the cost. The measure, included in the 2027 draft Finance Bill, will instead be financed directly through the state’s general budget.
Asked what would happen if a widow remarried, the minister referred the question to the competent courts, saying it fell under a separate legal framework from the measure proposed in the 2027 draft budget.
