Abu Dhabi, UAE — The UAE pension authority clarified Tuesday that requests related to Shourak scheme, which enables Emiratis to merge end-of-service benefits when switching careers, will only be considered applicable for eligible insured Emiratis who submit their end-of-service employment applications to the General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) after 1 July 2023.
Shourak (meaning preference in English) was launched by the GPSSA for insured Emiratis seeking to merge previous and current employment periods in case of a career switch in order to increase years of service, without any additional cost.
WAM reported that individuals applying for Shourak based on the date of their employment termination and/or resignation rather than their end-of-service date will not be eligible to benefit from the scheme.
The GPSSA has received numerous inquiries from insured members regarding Shourak, prompting the authority to outline situations in which individuals cannot avail themselves of its benefits.
This includes insured individuals who are eligible to receive an end-of-service gratuity for their employment years but are unable to benefit from Shourak due to terminating their employment contract before 1st July 2023.
Pensioners are also ineligible to apply for Shourak, despite meeting all other eligibility conditions, as the primary objective of merging employment years is to support insured individuals. Also, individuals who have worked for less than one year are unable to apply for Shourak, as they do not qualify for receiving an end-of-service gratuity.
Several procedures have been put in place that restrict individuals from applying for Shourak. For instance, submitting a merge request one month after joining a new employer/entity or reaching the legal retirement age of 60 prevents eligibility.
Moreover, insured individuals who voluntarily withdraw from merging their service years before completing the required procedures and those who join a new employer/entity after a six-month period, or pass away prior to completing the merge procedures, will not be able to benefit from Shourak.
Requesting a return in the end-of-service gratuity after the successful completion of the merge procedures by the GPSSA is not acceptable.