A grace period of 6 months has been announced for employees within the public and private sector to subscribe to the unemployment insurance scheme.
Subscriptions to the mandatory scheme opened on 1 January through the Involuntary Loss of Employment (ILOE) website.
Employees employed at 1 January have up to 30 June to subscribe and for those whose employment started after 1 January, there is a 4 month grace period to subscribe starting from the day they arrived in the UAE or the date the visa status changed.
The mandatory unemployment insurance scheme was announced in October 2022, and is set to offer a payment of 60% of an employees monthly salary for up to three months in the event of them being made redundant.
The scheme has two subscription plans, with the first for individuals receiving a salary lower than Dhs 16,000, where the insurance cost is Dhs 5 per month, and the compensation will not exceed Dhs 10,000 per month, and the second for individuals with a salary over Dhs 16,000, who will be eligible for compensation up to Dhs 20,000 per month, with the insurance cost set at Dhs 10 per month.