What Happens To Your UAE DEWS Pension When You Leave, And How To Claim It

If you worked in the UAE, in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or anywhere in the DIFC, after 2020, you almost certainly have money sitting in a DEWS account. Most people who leave the UAE have no idea this money exists or that they can claim it.

What is DEWS?

DEWS stands for the DIFC Employee Workplace Savings scheme. It replaced the old end of service gratuity system in the Dubai International Financial Centre in 2020 and has since expanded across parts of the broader UAE employment market.

Under DEWS your employer makes monthly contributions of between 5.83% and 8.33% of your basic salary into a personal savings account in your name. These contributions are invested and grow over time. The account belongs to you, not your employer.

Unlike the old gratuity system, where your employer held the money and paid it out only when you left, DEWS money is in an individual account in your name from day one.

What happens when you leave the UAE?

When you leave your job in the UAE your DEWS account does not automatically close and pay out. The money stays in the account until you claim it.

This is where thousands of former UAE workers lose track of their money. They leave the country, assume the money was included in their final settlement, and never follow up. In many cases it was not. The DEWS account sits there, invested, growing, with nobody claiming it.

Who is eligible for DEWS?

DEWS applies primarily to employees working under DIFC employment law. If you worked for a company registered in the DIFC, which includes many international banks, law firms, consultancies and financial institutions, you are likely covered.

The DIFC is home to over 5,000 companies and tens of thousands of international workers. Many of those workers have left the UAE without ever claiming their DEWS savings.

How does DEWS value build up?

DEWS contributions are based on your basic salary and are invested over time. We do not publish per-case value estimates, your DEWS balance is confirmed by the scheme provider once your account is identified.

Why do so many people never claim their DEWS?

The most common reason is simply not knowing the money is there. Many employees were never clearly told how DEWS worked or that they had an individual account in their name. They assumed their end of service money was settled when they left and never investigated further.

Others know they have a DEWS account but find the claims process confusing from overseas. The paperwork, the time zones, the bureaucracy, all of it creates friction that stops people from following through.

How to claim your DEWS from overseas

To claim your DEWS you need to know which DEWS provider your employer used, there are several authorised providers including Equiom, Zurich International and others. You then need to contact the provider directly with your employment details and identification documents to initiate a withdrawal.

If you do not know which provider holds your DEWS account, which is the case for most former UAE workers, the process starts with tracing your employer's DEWS registration.

PensionHunter does exactly this. We search DEWS records, trace employer registrations and identify which provider holds your account. We then prepare the documentation you need to make a claim. Search and Global clients receive a full report within five working days of your intake form of starting (Country Pension Identification Report: 24 to 48 hours) with everything you need.

Worked in the UAE? Your DEWS account may have money in it right now. Register free, from $99.

Read more about pension tracing in the UAE

*This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. PensionHunter is a research and administrative assistance service and is not regulated by the FCA or any equivalent financial regulator.*

At PensionHunter, building the World's Trusted Pension Identification Platform, we help people across 41 countries find pension records they had forgotten about.