Members of the Maldives Retirement Pension Scheme (MRPS) who have reached 65 years of age are now able to secure slots for the Hajj pilgrimage using their pension funds.

Previously, individuals over 65 years old and those who turned 65 by the time a Hajj slot was confirmed could not use the funds in their retirement savings accounts to reserve a Hajj slot. However, regulations formulated under the 6th amendment to the Maldives Pension Act have been gazetted and implemented today.

The Pension Office stated today that with the newly introduced amendment, eligible members of any age can perform the Hajj pilgrimage using the funds in their retirement savings accounts. Consequently, individuals who were previously unable to reserve Hajj slots due to turning 65, as well as those aged 65 and above at the time of slot confirmation, can now utilize this opportunity.

Under this scheme, members eligible to reserve slots for Hajj are those who have not previously performed Hajj and have a minimum of MVR 336,000 in their Retirement Savings Account (RSA). Furthermore, for members who have pledged their pension funds for housing purposes, eligibility requires having MVR 336,000 remaining in the account after deducting that pledged amount.

Members wishing to go for Hajj under this policy will have their slots reserved in the established order upon paying 20 percent of the Hajj trip cost to the Maldives Hajj Corporation.

In addition, the Pension Office noted that when calculating pension payments for members currently receiving pensions or newly retiring members, the amount reserved for Hajj will not be included. Therefore, utilizing funds under the Hajj benefit may result in adjustments to the monthly pension amount received.

However, the regulations also state that if the Hajj reservation is cancelled for any reason or if the funds are deposited back into the Retirement Savings Account, the pension payments will be recalculated to include those funds.