The General Pension and Social Security Authority confirmed that registration and subscription for the UAE national employees in any of the public and private sectors represents the first step towards completing the period required for obtaining future pension benefits.

This came during a workshop which was held at the Intercontinental Hotel Dubai Festival City to educate the employers about the pension law and the e-services provided by GPSSA.

The workshop stressed that the registration of citizens working in any of the entities covered by the Federal Pensions Law is mandatory starting from the date of joining the work according to the provisions of the Federal Law No. 7 of 1999 of Pensions and Social Insurance and its amendments, if the insurance conditions specified by the law are met, which are the nationality and the age of the subscriber shall not be less than (18) years and not more than (60) years.

The workshop stressed that the employers must pay the payable contributions of the insured on a monthly basis which is equivalent to 20% of the elements that are included in the subscription salary, and the employer bears 15% of it. The government supports citizens working in the private sector by bearing 2.5% of the subscriptions due by the employers to encourage them to hire UAE nationals. The UAE nationals bear 5% of the total 20% whether he or she works in the public sector or the private sector. GPSSA pointed out that the employers shall pay these subscriptions on the dates determined by the Pensions Law; otherwise, the Law imposes additional amounts to the subscriptions.

In addition, GPSSA pointed out that the subscriptions payable by the insured in the government sector are paid every month, while in the private sector are paid in January of each year without considering any increase in salary during the year except in January of the following year. Furthermore, if the employee joins the private sector after January, his subscriptions are assessed on the basis of the month in which he joined, provided that he or she shall be treated in the following January in accordance with the established rules, which are the assessment of subscriptions from January of each year.

The imposed subscriptions in this case are assessed in full for the month in which he or she joined. Meanwhile, the insured’s benefits in the government sector are settled according to the average salary of the subscription for the last three years of work, while the insured’s benefits in the private sector are settled according to the average salary of the subscription for the last five years of work. The salary of the subscription in the government sector consists of the basic salary, the cost of living allowance, the social allowance of the children, the social allowance of the citizen and the housing allowance while in the private sector consists of all items stipulated in the work contract.

GPSSA explained that the insured whose service has been terminated from one of the employers and has joined a new job is entitled to combine his or her previous service period. AS each period for which the insured has received an end of service award may be combined and the insured bears the costs of combination in full, and it is required to pay these costs before the termination of service with the current employer. If the insured fails to pay the full costs, his benefits will be settled based on the actual period for which he has paid subscriptions. Finally, the insurance protection extends to the Gulf nationals working outside their countries in any of the GCC countries and the provisions of the Pensions and Social Security Law in their countries apply to them.

The Registration is compulsory according to the unified system for extending insurance protection issued by a decision of the Supreme Council in its 25th session held in the Kingdom of Bahrain in December 2004 where the State began to enforce the Law on January 1, 2017 by the Cabinet Resolution No. 18 of 2007. During the workshop, the lecturers stressed that GPSSA is keen to strengthen partnership with employers, whether in the federal, local or private sector within the framework of transparency and integrity to ensure the validity of the procedures related to their obligations towards the insured and acting in accordance with the provisions of the law.

The workshop dealt with the electronic subscriptions collection system, which helped automate the process of collection of subscriptions, and thanks to which GPSSA was able to save a lot of effort and time for employers. The workshop also shed the light on other electronic services such as registration of insured, disbursement of insurance benefits, updating the databases of pensioners and beneficiaries, end of service, combination of the period of previous service and issue of To Whom It May Concern certificates for all purposes, and the specialists personnel of GPSSA answered many questions of attendance.

© Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2018.