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Abu Dhabi, UAE, 26 June 2023: The General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) has announced that the service period continuation program, "Shourak", will come into effect starting on the 1st of July 2023. The program seeks to provide merging of previous and current employment periods in case of a career change to increase years of service without the need to incur any additional cost.



Shourak aims to keep the insured individual’s service period continuous in the event of a change of employment without any additional costs, benefiting all workers in both the public and private sectors covered by the Federal Pension Law.


Mohammed Saqr Al Hammadi, Head of Pension Operations Department at the GPSSA, said: “Shourak benefits only individuals eligible for end-of-service benefits and does not extend to those who have any of the conditions of entitlement to the pension upon separation from service. It does not include retirees, nor does it apply to holders of previous service periods that expired before July 1st of 2023, who can easily merge service periods as per the current service-period merger regulations. Shourak also does not cover a period of service of less than one year, as this period does not qualify for any gratuity in the first place.”


He added: “It’s a prerequisite that the insured person's previous place of employment is subject to the Federal Pension Law. Regarding transfers from other funds to the GPSSA, they can benefit from the benefit exchange system, which allows switching between entities if the HR regulations between the two entities do not include any rules that shall prevent the transfer. In this case, the period of service of the insured person shall be continuous and any differences in the cost of merger, if any, shall be borne by the transferee after the transfer of the insured person's end-of-service amount to the entity to which he or she was transferred."


To benefit from Shourak, Al Hammadi explained that upon termination of service, the insured must notify the employer of his choice to opt for the Shourak option so that, when submitting the insured’s end-of-service payment on the system, the insured shall choose not to receive the end-of-service amount for the purpose of merging the service periods. The insured shall then be required to download the application for non-payment of the end-of-service gratuity for the purpose of merging service periods, then fill in the application, sign it and get the signature of the employer and attach it to the end-of-service form and other required documents.


The application to opt into the Shourak program might be rejected if the insured did not meet certain conditions. The most important of which is the lack of any financial liabilities during the previous period of service, like a legal alimony debt for instance or payment due to the government by the insured person for a reason related to the performance of his/her professional duties or the recovery of amounts wrongfully granted to the insured. Al Hammadi pointed out that in order to benefit from Shourak, the insured must be employed within 6 months from the date of employment termination, and he/she must apply for merging service periods within the first month of the new employment term.


He emphasized that there are a number of cases where merger could be cancelled, including an instance if the application was not submitted within one month of the new employment, if the insured has reached the age of retirement (60 years of age), if the insured voluntarily renounces the application for service period merger, if the insured person has spent over a period of 6 months before joining a new job, or in the event of the insured person's death before completing the merger procedures. He also noted that the end-of-service gratuity shall not be received by the insured individual completing the merger of service periods because the merging applies and is effective and binding on both the General Pensions and Social Security Authority and the applicant.


GPSSA’s Shourak program enables Emiratis’ transition between different sectors and ensure competitive, flexible and high-productivity human capital without interferences or challenges, providing a system that supports the “We the UAE 2031” vision which focuses on creating a forward-thinking, results-oriented government. Shourak is a reflection of the government's ability to adopt new and improved government concepts, policies and models that are more flexible and appropriate to today’s circumstances, empowering human capital with the aim of increasing the competitiveness of talents and capabilities and allowing the exchanges of expertise between different sectors of employment in light of the significant changes taking place in various sectors in the UAE at present.