7 in 10 UAE residents rely on their gratuity to fund retirement

End-of-service benefits continue to play a major role in the retirement plans of workers in the UAE.

According to research from Old Mutual International and Quilter Cheviot, nearly 70 per cent of us rely on gratuity payment for retirement.

That’s a 10 per cent increase compared to a similar survey by the two financial services firms in 2018.

On average, employees are expecting to receive just AED 17,000 in end-of-service payment, compared to AED 21,600 a year ago.

The study reveals the most popular use for the payment is to invest the money into a business (48 per cent) followed by investing in the stock market (40 per cent).

Three-quarters of respondents said they expect to continue to work in retirement in some capacity either for social (40 per cent) or financial (35 per cent) reasons and 75 per cent believe they will be doing this work self-employed.