Kids with foreign fathers can benefit from mother pension under new plan
Habib Shaikh

THE Saudi Public Pension Agency (SPPA) plans to have a new pension scheme that will include children with foreign fathers. The plan, which is still being studied by the ministry of finance, is going to give children of foreign fathers and Saudi mothers, the right to benefit from their mother’s pension.

“The SPPA has submitted the proposal to higher authorities in the ministry.

The scheme aims to include children who do not have Saudi citizenship in their mother’s pension,” said Fatimah Al Ali, the head of the female section at the SPPA in Riyadh.

The new plan also suggests that all inheritors should benefit from both parents’ pensions. “The old system meant a beneficiary was only entitled to one of the parent’s pensions, the one which is worth the most. But now we are demanding to change that, so that Saudi inheritors get both pensions,” Al Ali said.

There are no state pension schemes in Saudi Arabia for expatriates, although certain state institutions and some international companies have corporate pension schemes.

“I think any child with a foreign citizenship who has a Saudi mother should be treated as Saudi as well,” said Ayesha Al Ghamdi, a Saudi teacher married to an expatriate.

“I think the nationality issue in pensions is the only one left which separates children who have foreign fathers. Everything else has changed recently,” said Khadija Koja, who is married to a Syrian. Universities are accepting foreign students who have a Saudi mother.

The government of Saudi Arabia is trying to sort out how it deals with children born to Saudi mothers and foreign fathers. The issue of citizenship and other rights being passed down through the mother is one that the US tackled only in the 1960s and 70s.

According to this article from Khaleej Times from Dubai, there is some progress on this front.