What counts as pensionable service, and how is earlier service added?

Many disputes in retirement files are not about the law but about numbers: how many years of pensionable service does the employee really have? The appointment date alone does not answer that, because the Unified Retirement Law No. 9 of 2014 defines pensionable service as the period counted for retirement under this law or another law, for which retirement contributions were collected. Both conditions apply together: a provision that accepts the period, and contributions paid for it.

Contributions: the base on which service rests

Under Article 17, contributions of 25% of the basic salary are deducted monthly: 10% paid by the employee and 15% by the public treasury. Departments and self-funded companies must deduct these contributions and deposit them in the Fund's account, and late payment carries a fine. Put simply, years without contributions stay outside the count — Article 20 says so in terms.

What counts as pensionable service?

Article 18 names specific periods, most notably:

• Actual service in the State for which contributions were collected.
• Time spent out of service that is counted under the Political Dismissal Law No. 24 of 2005, as amended, once the employee's share of contributions is paid.
• Military service and periods of actual operations, and service of staff of region departments who move to federal departments, on a reciprocity basis and with contributions paid.
• Ordinary leave piled up past 180 days, with no contributions charged for it.
• Periods of practising law counted under the Law on Counting Advocacy Practice No. 65 of 2007, journalism under the Journalists' Rights Law No. 21 of 2011, and agricultural dedication, with contributions of 10%.
• Contract service in the State of a temporary employee after 9/4/2003, with both the employee's and the State's shares collected.

Paragraph 2 of the same article allows a person appointed or reappointed to ask for earlier actual service in State departments before the law took effect to be counted, after paying contributions for it if not already paid.

What does not count, and what counts as half?

Article 20 excludes: any period without paid contributions; absences and unpaid leave; periods after a criminal judgment becomes final where it prevents the employee from remaining in service; detention periods counted as part of imprisonment; service before age eighteen except where a statute allows it; and service after reaching the statutory age. The same article counts half-pay leave and suspension from duty (sahb al-yad) as half service.

The article ends with a strict rule of proof: the Authority does not accept a period of service as pensionable unless it is proven by official documents or records. Oral testimony or an unarchived letter is not enough.

Moving service between the State and the private sector

Article 19 regulates transfers in both directions. An employee who left service, resigned or was retired without receiving any retirement entitlement may add State service to later private-sector service. In the other direction, an employee may ask to add insured private-sector service for which no retirement entitlement was received, up to half of the employee's actual State service, bearing the difference between the contributions, calculated on the salary at the date of the request. Paragraph V allows the amounts to be paid in monthly instalments over five years. The Workers' Retirement and Social Security Law No. 18 of 2023, Article 39, also lets insured years move into any other legally established pension scheme, and lets such years move the other way.

Timing matters

A person who has received the retirement gratuity may not add any service afterwards and loses the right to it, unless reappointed to a pensionable post (Article 22). A person reappointed after an earlier gratuity has that service counted after returning the gratuity and paying the contribution difference (Article 23). So additions should be raised before retirement, not after.

Legal basis and sources

1. Unified Retirement Law No. 9 of 2014, Articles 1, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22 and 23
2. Workers' Retirement and Social Security Law No. 18 of 2023, Article 39

Frequently asked questions

Related topics and articles

• 01Early retirement in Iraq: when can a State employee request retirement?Conditions for requesting retirement before the statutory age in Iraq under Article 12 of the Unified Retirement Law: age or service, mothers, timing.
• 02State employee pensions vs. private-sector worker pensions: what is the difference?How a State employee pension (Law No. 9 of 2014) differs from a private-sector worker pension (Law No. 18 of 2023): body, conditions, service transfer.
• 03The retirement gratuity, the monthly lump sum and the end-of-service awardThe retirement gratuity, the monthly lump sum and the end-of-service award under Iraq's Unified Retirement Law: who gets each and how it is calculated.
• 04Retirement on health grounds and the medical committee in IraqWhen an Iraqi State employee is retired on health grounds: the official medical committee, effects on service and pension, work injury, the 30-day appeal.
• 05A deceased employee's pension: survivors' rights after the death of an employee or pensionerWho receives a deceased employee's pension in Iraq, each survivor group's conditions, the distribution shares, and when a share stops or returns.

Always check the text in force and its amendments in the official source.

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