Abu Dhabi: Twice as many Emirati women as men are registered with the General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) in the UAE. Latest statistics show that 93,895 Emirati women are registered with the GPSSA, compared to 46,985 men, with women making up 66.7 per cent of the GPSSA contributions.
This means a large number of Emirati women are now working and contributing to the pension system. In the federal sector, there are 25,036 women and 10,583 men; in the government sector, 18,082 women and 17,078 men; and in the private sector, 50,777 women and 19,324 men.
Favourable laws
The increased pensions contributions from women is seen as an outcomes of laws that give women more benefits in the pension system.
For instance, UAE Federal Law No 7 of 1999 gives women 10 years of legal service for pension purposes, compared to five years for men, and a 2 per cent pension increase upon retirement if they have worked for at least 20 years.
While the law doesn’t allow merging two GPSSA pension schemes or combining a pension with an insured individual’s salary, it does allow a widow to merge her pension with her husband’s or combine her salary with his pension.
The 1999 law also ensures equal pension shares for both genders, emphasising that daughters should receive the same pension share as their brothers.
Sons stop receiving pensions at age 21, while daughters can continue receiving pensions if they are unemployed, unmarried, divorced, or widowed. If a mother, daughter, or sister becomes unemployed, divorced, or widowed, any suspended pension shares are repaid fairly.
Advantages for mothers
According to UAE Federal Law No. 57 of 2023, insured women can receive a pension if they end their employment, or if they have contributed to the GPSSA for 30 years and are at least 55 years old.
The 2023 federal law offers mothers different conditions regarding minimum contribution years and the pension entitlement age, with a reduction of two years in the contribution period and three years less in age for each of the 5th and 6th child; 3.5 years for the contribution period and four years for a female or a mother with a 7th child.
Eng-of-service period
The law also allows women to participate for a maximum of three years for those who wish to apply for a leave in order to care for their children, while continuing to pay the contributions due during this period, since it is still considered part of the contribution period when calculating her end-of-service period.
The law redistributes pension rates to those entitled to it by raising a widow’s entitlement share to 40 per cent of the pension in order to support her children, with male and female children entitled to 40 per cent of the pension amount, while the father or mother, or both, are entitled to 20 per cent of the pension share.
As the new distribution share showcases, a widow’s pension share has increased given her responsibilities as a breadwinner after the decease of her husband. Additionally, the law preserves a widow’s right to merge her pension share to that of her husbands, or to combine her husband’s share with her work salary.
