RIYADH — The provisions of the new Social Insurance Law, issued by a Royal Decree on July 2, 2024, came into force on Tuesday, July 1. The General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) announced this, while noting that this law is applicable exclusively to new civil employees, joining the public and private sectors, who do not have any prior contribution periods in the current Civil Pension Law or Social Insurance Law. The amended law stipulates gradual increase in retirement age while there will be no change in the benefits for the current subscribers of GOSI. The organization stated that the statutory retirement age for individuals affected by the amendments will range between 58 and 65 Gregorian years. The organization stated that this law will contribute to expanding the scope of insurance coverage to include more categories and will achieve flexibility in job transfers between the public and private sectors without affecting subscribers' insurance rights, by unifying insurance provisions under the umbrella of a single law. The new regulations, which will be applied to new subscribers to the Social Insurance System, include a gradual increase in the pension branch subscription rates, starting from the second year of the system's validity until the fifth year, by 0.5 percent annually, so that the cumulative increase reaches 2 percent. Hence the subscription rate becomes 11 percent instead of 9 percent for the subscriber and the employer. The law stressed the need for employers to commit to paying subscriptions on their specified dates, in order to preserve the rights of employees subject to the system. The maternity benefit will also be implemented starting Tuesday, July 1. Under this benefit, the GOSI grants female subscribers, whether Saudi or non-Saudi, maternity compensation for three months upon giving birth. The GOSI urged all its customers, both subscribers and employers, to review all the details related to these provisions through the awareness platform on the organization's website or via the GOSI app.
