Return-to-work conditions for retired Emiratis explained by the UAE’s pension authority
Abu Dhabi, 1 September 2022: A retired Emirati pensioner who wishes to work again may re-enroll with the General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) given that he/she is not 60 years old or above, and has decided to join an entity that is subject to the provisions of the federal pension law, highlighted the UAE’s pension authority today.
A pensioner must understand the provisions of the law prior to returning to work, since a pension is not released if the individual’s salary in the new job is equal to, or greater than, the pension salary received previously.
GPSSA however offers exceptions that enable a pensioner who returns to work to combine both pension and salary from his/her previous and new job, and those include:
-Spending 25 years or more in the government sector without being terminated from his/her employment
-Disciplinary court ruling or termination for reasons other than the mentioned pointers 1 to 5 in Article 16 of Law No. 7 of 1999 on Pensions and Social Security and its amendments
A widow on the other hand has the right to merge the pension under her own personal capacity as well as receive her deceased husband’s pension, i.e. it is permissible to merge the deceased husband’s pension alongside her salary from work.
“If those conditions are met and applied, the insured is subject to the insurance and contribution regulations, which are paid on their behalf, and if their period leads to a pension then they will receive the pension with the largest value, since it’s not allowed to receive two pensions from the GPSSA,” explained Hind Al-Suwaidi, GPSSA’s Head of Benefits Management Department.
“An end-of-service gratuity is paid if the individual’s service period is less than the required timeframe, which entitles them to receive a pension. According to the law, the pensioner is entitled to a pension for their previous and new service periods and is charged for the sum of the two together, by the end of the service period,” she added.
It is worth noting that to merge both service periods, the pensioner’s age upon return to work, must not exceed 55 years old. In this case, the individual is required to submit a request within a year from the date of their return to work and to refund the pensions they have been receiving previously based on their years of service in the new job.
GPSSA re-stressed the fact that the merge fees are calculated based on the difference between the pension calculation salary and the contribution calculation salary from the date of submitting the application. If the contribution calculation salary in the new job was equal to or less than the pension they were receiving on the date of application, the applicant does not incur any extra costs for the merge.
