Employment & HR
Unemployment insurance (ILOE)
Five or ten dirhams a month, sixty per cent of basic salary for up to three months if you lose your job, and a fine for not subscribing. Almost nobody knows which category they are in.
The entitlement
What the law gives, regardless of contract.
The Involuntary Loss of Employment scheme is compulsory for private sector and federal government employees. There are two categories. Category A covers employees with a basic salary of AED 16,000 or less, at a premium of AED 5 per month, with compensation capped at AED 10,000 a month. Category B covers those above AED 16,000 basic, at AED 10 per month, capped at AED 20,000 a month. Compensation is sixty per cent of the average basic salary over the six months before the job loss, payable for a maximum of three months per claim.
Eligibility requires at least twelve consecutive months of subscription before a claim, which means someone who subscribes on losing their job gets nothing. The scheme also excludes employees dismissed for disciplinary reasons, those with absconding complaints against them, people not lawfully present in the country, and claims arising from labour strikes. Non-subscription attracts a fine of AED 400 and failure to keep up payments AED 200, with the policy cancelled after three months of non-payment. Unpaid fines are recovered through WPS or from end-of-service benefits.
Where these figures come from
Premiums, caps and fines as published by MOHRE and the ILOE scheme administrator: Category A at AED 5 per month for basic salaries up to AED 16,000 with a AED 10,000 monthly cap, Category B at AED 10 per month with a AED 20,000 cap, compensation at 60% of average basic salary for up to three months, and a minimum twelve months of consecutive subscription.
Checked against MOHRE and iloe.ae published material, August 2026.
The numbers
- Category A
- Basic salary AED 16,000 or less — AED 5/month, capped at AED 10,000
- Category B
- Basic salary above AED 16,000 — AED 10/month, capped at AED 20,000
- Compensation
- 60% of average basic salary over the prior 6 months
- Duration
- Maximum 3 months per claim
- Eligibility
- At least 12 consecutive months of subscription
- Fines
- AED 400 for non-subscription; AED 200 for non-payment
What it costs
In practice
How this is actually administered.
- Work out which category appliesIt keys off basic salary, not total package, with AED 16,000 as the boundary.
- Subscribe and keep payingTwelve consecutive months are required before any claim is possible, so a lapse resets the qualification.
- Understand the exclusionsDisciplinary dismissal, absconding complaints and unlawful presence all exclude a claim.
- Claim promptly after involuntary job lossCompensation is sixty per cent of average basic salary for up to three months.
- For employers, tell staff it existsThe obligation is the employee's, and unpaid fines end up recovered through WPS or end-of-service dues, which becomes the employer's administration.
Related
Questions
AED 5 a month for basic salaries of AED 16,000 or less, and AED 10 a month above that.
Sixty per cent of the average basic salary over the six months before job loss, capped at AED 10,000 or AED 20,000 a month by category, for up to three months.
Yes, for private sector and federal government employees. Non-subscription attracts an AED 400 fine.
No. It covers involuntary loss of employment, and excludes disciplinary dismissal and cases with absconding complaints.
One question
How many people are on the payroll?
Then the order matters. Establishment card, then quota, then work permit, then entry permit, then medical, Emirates ID and contract registration. Skipping ahead to a signed offer letter before the quota exists is the usual way a start date slips by six weeks.
The first hire, in orderOr just ask usThis is the size where informal arrangements start costing money — salaries paid partly outside WPS, leave that was never tracked, gratuity nobody has accrued for. None of it is hard to fix now and all of it is expensive to fix at a MOHRE hearing.
What you are accruing without knowingOr just ask usThen Emiratisation quotas, WPS timing, ILOE subscriptions and health insurance renewals are running on separate calendars, and the penalty for each is levied per employee. Consolidating those dates is usually worth more than any single piece of advice.
What gets inspectedOr just ask us