Picture used for illustrative purposes.

The General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) has outlined five criteria for insured Emiratis to benefit from the Shourak programme, which was introduced last year to improve the quality of life and financial stability of insured individuals working in UAE-based federal, government, and private sector entities.

Shourak allows insured Emiratis to merge their employment years when changing entities without incurring additional fees, provided they opt not to receive the end-of-service gratuity to complete the eligible pension period.

The first criterion considers whether the insured’s employment ended before or after Shourak was introduced on 1st July 2023.

Only those whose employment ended on, or after this date are eligible. Any employment period prior to this date does not apply to Shourak as per its provisions.

The second criterion requires that the employee must have worked for at least a year, as those with less than one year of service are not eligible for Shourak.

The third criterion states that the employee must have worked with entities affiliated with the GPSSA, as employment periods with other pension funds or authorities are not covered by Shourak.

The fourth criterion specifies that the insured must join a new entity within six months of leaving the previous one.

Finally, the fifth criterion requires the insured to request to merge their employment periods within three months of joining the new entity, as service periods are not merged automatically.

Since the implementation of Shourak on 1st July 2023, the GPSSA has received 5,198 end-of-service gratuity cases.

However, only 1,685 insured members have been able to benefit from the programme, meeting the criteria of having their employment service end after Shourak's introduction and opting to merge their previous and subsequent employment service years to maintain continuity.

WAM