UAE End of Service Savings Scheme and DEWS: What You Get

The UAE end of service savings scheme is an optional alternative to the gratuity. A private sector or free zone employer that joins pays 5.83% of your monthly basic salary into an approved investment fund in your first 5 years of service, and 8.33% after. When you leave you get all those contributions plus any returns within 14 days.

In the DIFC it is not optional: the DIFC Employment Law makes employers pay at least the same rates into a qualifying savings scheme, known as DEWS, instead of a gratuity for service since it started (Art. 66(7)).

• Legal basis. The Decree-Law lets the Cabinet approve alternative schemes to the end of service gratuity (Art. 51(8)). The UAE Government portal names Cabinet Resolution No. 96 of 2023 for this scheme.
• Who decides. Joining is the employer's choice. It applies to private sector and free zone employers, and the employer may enrol all employees, specific groups or selected job categories.
• Contributions. For full-time employees, 5.83% of monthly basic salary if you have not completed 5 years of service, 8.33% if you have served more than 5 years. The employer pays them into the fund within 15 days of the start of each month.
• Your own top-up. You may add voluntary contributions of up to 25% of your total wage, monthly, or yearly as a lump sum.
• Investment choice. There is a capital guarantee option for unskilled workers, which the UAE Government portal describes as protecting your capital.

For comparison, the ordinary gratuity is 21 days' basic salary a year for the first 5 years and 30 days a year after (Art. 51). See it for your own pay with the UAE gratuity calculator.

Once you are enrolled, your employer stops the traditional gratuity for you. It must work out and settle any gratuity you built up before enrolment, in line with the law. From then on, your end of service money is what is in the fund.

If you are not sure whether you are enrolled, ask your employer in writing when you joined the scheme, which fund holds your money and what gratuity was settled for your earlier service. MoHRE publishes the list of approved funds on its alternative end of service benefits page.

• You are entitled to all the employer contributions and any returns on them within 14 days after the employment ends.
• You can keep the money invested in the scheme or withdraw it at any time.
• Your other final dues, such as wages and notice pay, are still owed within 14 days of the contract ending (Art. 53).

Plan the rest with the leaving plan. If you lost your job, read what you are owed on dismissal in the UAE. If money is not paid, file a MoHRE complaint.

• Mandatory. From 1 February 2020 for employees already in post, DIFC employers pay at least the core contributions every month into a qualifying scheme (Art. 66(7)).
• Rates. 5.83% of monthly basic wage for the first 5 years of service, counting service before the scheme started, and 8.33% for each further year (Art. 66(7)(a) and (b)).
• Earlier service. Service before the scheme started still earns the old gratuity: 21 days' basic wage a year for 5 years, 30 days after, up to twice the annual wage (Art. 66(1) and (2)).
• Moving the old gratuity in. Your employer may transfer that gratuity into the scheme with your prior written consent, and is then relieved of paying it (Art. 66(6)).
• UAE and GCC nationals registered with the GPSSA get a top-up contribution to a qualifying scheme instead (Art. 65(3)).

Ask your employer or the scheme how and when you can withdraw when you leave. More on free zones: end of service in UAE free zones.