TEHRAN – The average amount of allowance that Iranian breadwinner women receive from the State Welfare Organization will increase by two folds in the next Iranian calendar year (March 2017-2018).

Last year, breadwinner women received an average amount of 700,000 rials (about $20) in monthly pension, Habibollah Masoudi-Farid, the deputy director of the organization said on Sunday.

The organization is planning to empower about 10 percent of the breadwinner women annually and exclude them from the list of allowance receivers, IRNA quoted Masoudi-Farid as saying.

The official went on to note that about 12.5 percent of the target society quitted the list of direct support of the State Welfare Organization in the previous year.

Currently, there are around 2.5 million breadwinner women in the country, Masoudi-Farid said, adding a number of 180,000 families, making up 500,000 people, are receiving financial aids from the organization.

About 71 percent of breadwinner women have taken the responsibility of their families due to loss of their husbands, he stated.

Some 11 percent of breadwinning women are divorced, 10 percent are disabled or handicapped or have drug-addicted husbands, and about 5 percent of them are unmarried girls who are taking caring of their parents or their whole families, the official explained.

NM/MG