(MENAFN - Morocco World News) Rabat - In an effort to fight poverty, one of the most challenging issues in the kingdom, Morocco's government council has just passed a bill to broaden the list of the Family Mutual Assistance Fund's beneficiaries. The amount of an annual assistance aid has increased from MAD 160 million to MAD 500 million, according to Moroccan daily newspaper Al Ahdath Al Maghribia. The list of beneficiaries will include poor wives, abandoned mothers, and children in need. Women who are looking after their children are also included. The new revisions form part of the draft law amending the conditions and procedures for receiving benefits from the Family Mutual Assistance Fund adopted on Thursday in a government council meeting. The amendments made by the government will also allow minors who have legal guardians to apply for the fund's advances after the authorization of Head of Government Saad Eddine El Othmani. Government Spokesman Mustapha El Khalfi said that this bill aims to improve the performance of this fund, created in 2011 under the government of Abbas El Fassi. He added that this reform is also set to facilitate procedures and to strengthen the mechanism for allocating aid against fraud. The move will then require the adoption of an implementing decree, which the government should work on just after the vote on the 2018 budget bill. Two-hundred thousand orphans have been able to attend schools, owing to the contribution of this social reform that amounts to MAD 160 million per year, said El Khalfi. He added that the government will continue to improve the profitability for the assistance fund."

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