WAM: The General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) has said that insured members under the GPSSA’s umbrella who opt to join “Shourak” must do so within six months of their end-of-service date and merge their end-of-service benefits within one month when joining a new entity.

“Shourak”, which means “preference” in English, aims to provide Emiratis with a more sustainable insurance return for themselves and their families and a secure pension scheme.

The programme’s procedures do not apply to employment years before July 1st, 2023, when the project will take effect. This means that any previous employment years prior to that date will not be merged without a charge as they are not covered by ‘Shourak’.

‘Shourak’ only covers insured GPSSA members who are willing to transfer their end-of-service gratuity from one employer to another, regardless of whether they are employed in the government or private sector. It does not apply to or cover insured Emiratis under other pension funds or those transferring from another UAE-based pension fund to the GPSSA.

It is up to the human resources regulations in both the previous and subsequent entities to agree to merge the end-of-service gratuity. If agreed, the new employer/entity in which the insured is transferred to bears the difference in cost incurred in the merging process.

The scheme does not cover pensioners or individuals about to retire as it is designed to support insured Emiratis in merging their previous and subsequent employment years to receive a secure and sustainable pension by the time they are ready to retire. Additionally, Shourak does not cover individuals with a service period of less than one year, as this period does not entitle insured persons to receive an end-of-service benefit.

Shourak is the first transformational project launched by the GPSSA to provide valuable information to insured Emiratis on the importance of merging previous and current employment/service periods in case of a career switch to increase years of service without the need to incur any additional cost.

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