The General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) has denied false rumours being circulated about merging a service period only one time, highlighting the fact that an insured individual has the option to merge his/her service period at any time and without the need to rush the merge once he/she moves from one job to the other.
“The option to merge as many service/employment periods, as per the UAE Federal Law, at any time, is always available,” GPSSA added. The insured may choose to plan for this process according to his/her financial status, noting that GPSSA’s Board of Directors decision to grant the insured the option to merge the cost over four years is always available to enhance chances of extending the accumulated service periods and benefiting from a higher pension rate upon retirement.
Explaining the merging process further, Al Hammadi added that an insured individual who wishes to merge service periods may do so by submitting a new request to add another service period, provided that the first request is settled based on calculating the added periods in proportion to the amounts paid.
He explained that the insured can choose to pay the due amount in instalments without the need to return the end-of-service benefit from the previous job. The insured can pay the due amount in one payment or monthly instalments that are not less than a quarter of the salary according to Federal Law.
The instalments period should not exceed four years or the end-of-service period. The cost for adding the service period is calculated according to an equation represented by multiplying the contribution calculation salary at the date of submitting the merge application × 20 per cent (the percentage of contributions due from the insured and the employer) x the period to be combined in months.
