El Gobierno marroquí planea ampliar su programa de protección social

Morocco has announced an expansion of social protection programmes, which will be composed of new categories. The government, through Khaled Ait Taleb, Minister of Health and Social Protection, informed about the new project in which the country's leadership is engaging in social workshops, which will start benefiting those who need various assistance to support their own economy.  

The new government programme builds on the workshops that have been running for years, in which King Mohamed VI has been strongly involved. This new plan will strengthen and develop several programmes in the areas of social assistance, improving governance, as well as launching new carve-outs that signify a reform of the targeting system. Also, this project aims to diversify and expand the support mechanisms for the most vulnerable groups of society, which in the case of retirees for example, will extend their health and retirement coverage. The government also plans to develop a system of compensation for those who have lost their jobs.  

Ait Taleb affirms that the result of this project will lead to a generalisation of social protection, which will have great prospects for the future, and which will be controlled by competent authorities who will maintain the balance and sustainability necessary for the idea to work and establish itself as one of the government's new aims.  

The leadership of the Alawi country has realised this project, in which it has brought a new dynamism to these reforms, and in itself, signifies a turning point for its own implementation. The programming mechanisms expect these new workshops to have a large national dimension and are expected to be viable until at least 2025, when they will be able to develop new reforms that will allow the project to become more and more up to date. 

The Minister of Health was also interviewed by the Moroccan daily Hespress. According to him, before the end of the year, the government will start to focus on preparing the inclusion of people with a "Ramid" card in the health coverage system. This will enable the most vulnerable groups to benefit from the same benefits offered by the country's health system, in addition to obtaining a compulsory health insurance scheme.  

"Priority will be given to health coverage, on which we have made a lot of progress and laws and decrees have been passed," said the Health Minister. 

The Ramid card and the Ramid service is a system announced by the Economic Supervisory Committee to enable the workers of families who do not have a card to make their declarations in order to benefit from benefits according to the number of family members. The government will provide around 800 dirhams for families with two members or less, 1000 dirhams for families with three to four members, and 1200 dirhams for families with more than four members. 

To apply for this support, Moroccan citizens will have to register with the service, but only the leader of the family, i.e. the person who mainly contributes the most financially to the household, will be able to declare for the support.  The government statement stresses the importance of this, adding that no application will be accepted from anyone other than the family leader. The population of the Maghreb country will have until Thursday 16 April this year to send in the procedure and they have a specific telephone number to answer any questions or doubts they may have about this system. 

"As you know, the number of Ramid card holders will be one third of those involved in the health coverage system, and it is expected that we will finish these workshops in 2022, and then we will move on to other sizes, which will continue to operate until 2025," said Ait Taleb.