The CEO of the General Authority for Social Insurance, Eman Mustafa Al-Mirbati, revealed to Bahrain that public sector employees can obtain a retirement pension of 90% of the salary they received while performing their work.
Al-Mirbati stated that the decision issued by the Minister of Finance and National Economy, Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, enables the worker in the public sector to continue in the voluntary retirement system until he reaches the age of 65 years.
She pointed out that if an employee’s years of work in the public sector reach 45 years or 65 years or more, he receives a retirement pension amounting to 90% of his salary while he is in the job.
She pointed out that the decision allows the employee to choose one of two options if he decides to extend his working years to 65 years, First: 10% will be added to his retirement pension, making it 90%, Second: In return for his contribution within five years, he receives an additional five-year optional bonus.
She added that the decision allows the competent authority at the employer to approve the employee’s request to continue working after the age of sixty-five, as required by the work need, after the approval of the Civil Service Commission.
Article 55 of Law No. 13 of 1975 stipulates that the participant in optional insurance may request an amendment to the value of the wage on which the subscription is calculated by raising it by no more than 5% annually, and the amendment takes effect as of January this year.
The decision noted that the applicant must have completed all procedures for subscribing to optional insurance within the first fifteen days of the month to be included in calculating the optional subscription period, If the procedures are completed after that, the subscription amount is calculated, and the optional subscription period begins from the following month.
The sources stressed that in order to calculate the pension or retirement benefit, the period of participation in the voluntary insurance must be full years, and contributions must be refunded for fractions of a year, as an exception to the provisions of the previous paragraph, and it is permissible to subscribe for a period of less than a year if this is to complete fractions of a year in the period of active service Calculated for retirement.
Participation in voluntary insurance also ends automatically if the participant joins a job subject to retirement or insurance laws or regulations, and completion occurs as of the date he joins work.
