Your GOSI pension is worth more than you think.

It depends on the date of your first contribution. The Social Insurance Law that took effect on 3 July 2024 created a new system for people entering the workforce from that date onward, with a retirement age of 65 Gregorian years and an accrual of 2.25% a year. Anyone who had already contributed before that date stays on the existing formula, which accrues one fortieth (2.5%) of the average wage for each year of contributions. Your first registration date is on your GOSI profile at gosi.gov.sa.

Under the existing system, one fortieth of your average contributory wage for each year of contributions, so 50% at 20 years, 62.5% at 25 and the 100% ceiling at 40 years. The average is taken over your last 24 contribution months, and that average is itself capped at 150% of your contributory wage at the start of your last five years. Under the 2024 system the accrual is 2.25% a year and the average is taken over your highest 180 contribution months. Both are capped at 100% of the average contributory wage.

No, and this is the detail that changes the answer most. Contributions and benefits are calculated on the contributory wage, which is your basic wage plus housing allowance, and it is subject to a floor of SAR 400 and a ceiling of SAR 45,000 a month. Earnings above the ceiling build no additional pension at all. For a senior earner this means the real replacement rate against actual spending is far lower than the headline percentage suggests.

It is a fixed riyal amount set when you retire and does not rise automatically with prices. At an assumed 2% annual inflation, spending that costs SAR 30,000 a month at retirement costs about SAR 36,570 after ten years and SAR 49,218 after twenty five. The pension stays where it started, so the shortfall grows every year. Closing that gap is the purpose of investing alongside the pension rather than relying on it alone.

Under the existing system, yes: completing 300 contribution months opens early retirement without an age condition. Under the 2024 system early retirement requires 30 years of contributions and is available from age 55. In both cases retiring earlier means a smaller monthly pension paid across a longer retirement, so the arithmetic deserves checking before you commit.

Saudi Arabia previously ran two separate regimes: the Civil Pension Law for government employees, administered by the Public Pension Agency, and the Social Insurance Law for the private sector, administered by GOSI. In August 2021 the Council of Ministers resolved to merge the Public Pension Agency into GOSI, transferring all of its responsibilities, rights, obligations and assets, so both are now administered in one place. Rights accrued under each law are preserved rather than recalculated under a single new formula, so the practical question is what your combined entitlement comes to and which retirement age applies to you. That is worth establishing with GOSI directly.

An old-age pension requires a minimum of 120 contribution months, which is ten years, alongside reaching retirement age. Below that threshold you do not receive a monthly pension. A lump-sum compensation applies instead, calculated from your contributions. This is why unregistered work and long contribution gaps are more costly than they appear: only contribution months accrue.

SANED is the unemployment insurance branch. It is deducted at 0.75% of your contributory wage from your salary, with your employer paying a matching 0.75%. It is separate from the pension (annuities) branch, which takes 9% from you and 9% from your employer under the existing system. Your employer also pays 2% for occupational hazards cover, which does not come out of your wage.

Possibly. The 2024 reform left the statutory age alone for contributors who were aged 50 Hijri years or more on 3 July 2024, or who already held 20 years or more of contributions. For everyone else who was already contributing, the statutory age was rescaled on a sliding scale between 58 and 65 Gregorian years according to age on that date, and the early retirement requirement moves from 25 years toward 30. Because it is a sliding scale rather than a single figure, you need your own date from GOSI rather than a general rule.

Log in to the GOSI portal at gosi.gov.sa. You can see your first registration date, your total contribution months, the contributory wage registered against each period, and your estimated entitlement. That record is the binding one. If your registered contributory wage looks wrong, or months are missing that should be there, raise it with your employer first and with GOSI if it is not resolved, because the obligation to register and pay sits with the employer.