The CNSS old-age pension opens at 60, provided you have stopped all salaried activity and contributed at least 3,240 days. It pays 50% of the average monthly salary subject to contribution for those 3,240 days, plus 1% for each 216-day period contributed beyond them, with a 70% ceiling. The monthly minimum is 1,000 dirhams.
This guide is informational and does not replace a CNSS assessment. For a binding estimate, contact your CNSS office.
The three qualifying conditions
From the CNSS “Pension de vieillesse” (old-age pension) page:
- Reaching 60, or 55 for miners who can show at least five years working underground.
- Having ceased all salaried activity. Not a formality: CNSS asks either for an employer section completed where the activity ended less than six months ago, or for a sworn statement of inactivity beyond that.
- Having contributed at least 3,240 days.
The 3,240 days are the threshold that decides everything. Below it, there is no pension.
The formula
Two components: a rate and a reference salary.
The rate. 50% for the first 3,240 days, then one point more for each complete 216-day period contributed beyond them, capped at 70%.
The reference salary. CNSS defines it as the ninety-sixth part of the total contributory salaries received by the insured over the ninety-six declared months preceding the last calendar month of insurance before pension age. In plain terms: the average of the last eight declared years.
The point almost everyone misses. What counts is salary subject to contribution, and the long-term branch is capped at 6,000 dirhams a month (see the guide to CNSS contribution rates). The reference salary therefore cannot exceed 6,000 dirhams, whatever your real salary. A manager on 25,000 dirhams and a technician on 6,000, with the same contribution history, draw the same CNSS pension. That is the reason supplementary schemes such as CIMR exist.
Maximum pension from the basic scheme today: 70% of 6,000, that is 4,200 dirhams a month.
How the rate builds
| Contribution days | 216-day periods beyond 3,240 | Rate | Pension at the 6,000 MAD ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3,240 | 0 | 50% | 3,000 MAD |
| 4,680 | 6 | 56% | 3,360 MAD |
| 6,240 | 13 | 63% | 3,780 MAD |
| 7,560 | 20 | 70% | 4,200 MAD |
| 9,360 | 28, of which 20 count | 70% | 4,200 MAD |
Contribution days are those declared by the employer; Moroccan payroll commonly declares 26 days a month, that is 312 a year, which puts the 70% ceiling at around twenty-four years of declared career. Check your own counter on macnss.ma rather than reasoning in years.
Worked example
An employee retiring at 60 with 20 declared years at 312 days, that is 6,240 days, on a salary of 12,000 dirhams over the last eight years.
- Days above the threshold: 6,240 − 3,240 = 3,000.
- Complete 216-day periods: 3,000 ÷ 216 = 13.88, so 13 periods.
- Rate: 50% + 13 = 63%.
- Reference salary: contributory salaries are capped at 6,000 dirhams, so the reference salary is 6,000 dirhams, not 12,000.
- Monthly pension: 6,000 × 63% = 3,780 dirhams.
On a salary of 12,000 dirhams, the basic pension replaces 31.5% of the final income. That gap is what the basic scheme does not close.
The minimum
The minimum monthly old-age pension is set at 1,000 dirhams. It applies to careers just above the 3,240-day threshold with very low declared salaries.
Under 3,240 days: refund of employee contributions
Someone who reaches the legal age without accumulating 3,240 days gets no pension. They can apply for a refund of the employee contributions to the long-term branch, revalued at the net return rate on that branch’s reserves. The benefit is open to insured people who reached the legal age from January 2000 onwards.
Where such an insured person dies, the sum goes to their beneficiaries on the shares set for a survivors’ pension: 50% for the spouse or spouses, 25% for a child who has lost one parent, 50% for a child who has lost both.
The refund covers the employee share only. The employer share stays with the scheme.
Early retirement at 55
It exists, and it has a price. CNSS opens it from 55 against payment of a single premium by the employer, set according to the insured person’s age and the annual value of the pension.
The five conditions:
- Being aged 55 or over and under 60.
- Having at least 3,240 days of contributions.
- Having 54 days of contributions, continuous or not, in the six months preceding the request for a premium estimate.
- Having the employer’s agreement. This condition does not apply to share-paid sea fishermen.
- Actual payment of the premium.
The employer’s agreement is the real lock: without it, and without the premium, there is no early departure. The employer requests the premium calculation at a CNSS office using form ref. 315-1-06, then the employee files form ref. 315-1-07 with a copy of their national ID card or residence permit, a bank account certificate and a copy of the contributions payment slip stamped by the bank.
The pension is exempt from income tax
Article 57-27° of the Code général des impôts, 2026 edition, exempts from income tax the pensions and life annuities paid to retirees under the basic retirement schemes listed in article 59-II-A, which includes the social-security scheme set up by dahir portant loi n° 1-72-184. Private-sector retirees under group supplementary retirement insurance contracts served by CIMR are also covered, on the conditions in article 28-III. Pensions paid under other supplementary retirement schemes stay outside the exemption.
The code’s footnotes tie this exemption to finance laws no. 60-24 for 2025 and no. 50-25 for 2026. For pensions that remain taxable, article 60 keeps a flat allowance of 70% on the annual gross up to 168,000 dirhams and 40% above that.
File the claim on time
The insured person has six months from their sixtieth birthday to file. After that window the pension starts the month following the filing date, with no catch-up for the earlier months. Filing eight months late therefore costs eight monthly payments, permanently.
Documents required: form ref. 315-1-04, a copy of the national ID card or residence permit, the employer section completed where activity ended less than six months ago or a sworn statement of inactivity beyond that, and a bank account certificate or specimen cheque. Miners add a certificate of at least five years working underground; non-residents add a residence certificate and bank identification showing IBAN and BIC.
CNSS runs an annual contrôle de vie (proof-of-life check) to keep the pension in payment. Do not ignore it: it is what suspends payment.
The reform announced in 2026
The government presented a pension reform in 2026 that would gradually raise the legal age from 60 to 63, harmonise the CNSS, CMR and RCAR schemes, and change the calculation base. On what is reported, it would take effect on 1 January 2027 after a parliamentary vote expected in autumn 2026.
None of it is in force as of 7 August 2026. We could not read the reform text in the Bulletin Officiel or on a government portal reachable that day; its content is reported by the press, not verified at source. The rules that apply today are those set out above. This page will be updated once a published text allows definitive figures to be quoted.
Sources and verification
- CNSS, “Pension de vieillesse” page: age conditions, cessation of activity, the 3,240-day threshold, the 50% plus 1% per 216 days formula, the 70% ceiling, the 1,000 dirham minimum, the 96-month reference salary definition, the six-month window, the proof-of-life check, and the documents required.
- CNSS, “Retraite anticipée” page: the five conditions, the single employer premium, forms 315-1-06 and 315-1-07.
- CNSS, “Remboursement des cotisations salariales” page: who qualifies, how it is computed, beneficiary shares.
All three are official cnss.ma pages. The site was unreachable from our machine on 7 August 2026, so they were read in their archived versions, respectively October 2024, December 2024 and February 2025. No change to these rules was found since, but confirm at a CNSS office before any decision to retire.
- Code général des impôts, 2026 edition, articles 57-27°, 59-II-A and 60, on the taxation of pensions: CGI 2026, PDF, opened and read on 7 August 2026.
Further reading
- Guide: CNSS contribution rates, the 6,000 MAD ceiling that bounds the pension
- Guide: Morocco’s income tax scale on salary, and the exemption for basic pensions
- Guide: getting a CNSS registration number, every undeclared month is a lost month
- Guide: understanding your Moroccan payslip, the long-term line and its ceiling
- CIMR glossary entry, the supplementary scheme that offsets the ceiling
- CMR glossary entry and RCAR glossary entry, for the public sector
- CNSS glossary entry
- Official portal: cnss.ma