DEWS for employers
The DIFC Employee Workplace Savings Plan enables you to easily manage your end of service benefits and empower your employees to take control of their financial future.
DEWS in a nutshell
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Getting started | Employees | Contributions | Payments | Stand out | Changes | Leaving service | Learning academy | Providers | Documents
1. Nominate your administrator
Choose who will complete the DEWS enrolment steps that follow, this is typically someone from HR, Finance or Management.
2. Log into your DIFC Client Portal
In the ‘Company Services’ area, ‘Designate an authorised signatory for DEWS’. This person will sign the DEWS legal Deed.
3. Enrol for DEWS
The enrol button is below, simply click to get started. Your administrator will need to provide their contact info and submit your company application. Your authorised signatory will receive an email link to electronically sign the DEWS legal Deed.
4. Set-up tasks
Once your application is submitted, your company is registered for DEWS! Then you just need to tell us who owns your DIFC company, your company bank account details and add any other colleagues who need access in our ‘Users’ area.
…and you’re ready to go.
Who
All employees who are subject to a DIFC contract of employment or DIFC visa and who are receiving a basic salary,
* with some exemptions (see FAQ’s)
When
You should enrol employees after they have successfully completed their probation period, or immediately upon hire if no probation period applies.
How
By completing and uploading our simple excel template.
How much you need to pay
This depends on your employee’s length of service. The minimum contribution rates as a percentage of basic salary are:
5.83%
for employees with less than 5 years’ service.
8.33%
for employees with 5 years’ service or more.
+X%
You can choose to contribute more than this to enhance your benefits package.
Don’t forget
These contributions are payable each payroll cycle. If an employee has been on probation and is successful, you’ll need to pay a lump sum for all the months they’ve worked so far when you first enrol them. Add all these months together and include this on your first upload file. In future, you will pay one month at a time.
A unique account for you
Paying your contributions is easy. You can find your unique bank details for payment in your DEWS online portal on the upload page.
You then just need to instruct the payment with your bank. We don’t accept cash, cheques, or direct debits. We’ll never send bank details by email.
Multiple currency options
Contributions are always calculated in USD, but when it comes to payments you have currency flexibility. You can either pay us in USD or you can pay us in AED and we’ll convert the money when we receive it at our fixed rate of USD 1 = AED 3.6735.
To make sure we can allocate the full amount to each of your employees, your company must cover any bank transfer charges.
Set a monthly reminder
Contributions must be uploaded, and payment must be made before the 21st of the month following the payroll cycle. This means we should receive your money for August’s contributions before 21st September.
We’ll send email reminders along the way to help you.
You can find supporting resources for each of these options in our Documents area.
Sometimes things change...
What happens if...
An employee leaves
You’ll let us know through your monthly upload file by telling us their last working day, final contribution and personal email address. We’ll then contact the employee to let them know their options and help them with their withdrawal if they don’t wish to stay invested.
An employee is seconded to another group company
If the employee remains eligible for DEWS contractually and legally, there should be no change and you should continue to pay contributions as normal.
Loss of life occurs
We’re here to support you and your colleagues. Contact us by email and we’ll liaise with the Trustee to begin the beneficiary claim process.
An employee is re-hired
You’ll enrol the employee into your plan in the normal way and a new account will be created for them. You’ll need to let us know that you’re doing this in advance as we might need to update their old account to allow their new one to be created.
Our FAQ covers a few more ‘what if…’ questions.
Your Zurich Learning Academy
Articles, videos and guides to help you administer and make the most of DEWS
Useful Documents
Employers - all the guides, templates and documents you need to administer your plan
- Employer Guide
Information about the DEWS plan and your responsibilities as an employer
- Probation Guide
Before enrolment read about employees subject to a probationary period
- Upload File Template
The file you need to upload your employees and contributions
- Upload File Guide
Your guide to completing the upload file template
- Example Upload File
An example of a populated upload file template
- Country Codes List
A list of the country codes you'll need for your upload file
- Upload File Error Resolution
Your guide to resolving upload errors
- Personal Details Updates
Your guide to updating employee personal details
- Leaver Guide
Manage employees leaving your company
- Accrued Gratuity Transfer Consent Form
An editable template to record employee consent for an accrued gratuity transfer
- UBO Guide
Your guide to understanding your online UBO submission
If you would like further information or support, visit our FAQ’s & Documents page or use the Help Centre.