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Retirement transactions

Early retirement in Iraq: when can a State employee request retirement?

In briefA State employee may request retirement after completing fifty years of age or at least twenty-five years of pensionable service, and an employee mother caring for her children has special conditions. If the request is not decided within 45 days of registration, the employee is deemed retired.

What people call "early retirement" or "voluntary retirement" is, in the Unified Retirement Law No. 9 of 2014, "referral to retirement at the employee's request", governed by Article 12. The request is not an open right at any time: it has conditions of age or service, and a named authority must decide it within a fixed period.

The general rule: age fifty or twenty-five years of service

Paragraph I of Article 12 allows an employee to request retirement if either of two conditions is met: the employee has completed fifty years of age, or has at least twenty-five years of pensionable service. One is enough; both are not required.

Being allowed to request retirement is one thing; being entitled to a pension and having it paid is another. Article 21, as amended, requires at least fifteen years of pensionable service for a pension and does not allow payment before age forty-five — and in any case not for the period before that age. So a person who requests retirement at fifty with less than fifteen years of service moves to the retirement gratuity, not a pension.

Employee mothers caring for their children

Paragraph II of Article 12 gives a separate rule for an employee with custody of her children, whether she is married, widowed or divorced. She may request retirement if three conditions are all met:

  1. Her pensionable service is at least fifteen years.
  2. She has at least three children, none of them older than fifteen.
  3. She leaves work to look after the children full time.

The advantage of this case is that Article 21 exempts it from the age-forty-five condition for payment. When all three conditions hold, payment starts with no wait for that age.

Staff of loss-making self-funded companies and departments

Paragraph III is not about the employee's request but about the power of the competent minister, or the head of a body not linked to a ministry, to retire staff of self-funded companies and departments that have made losses for three consecutive years, if the employee has at least fifteen years of service, with no minimum age required. This case is also exempt from the age-forty-five condition for payment.

Who decides the request, and what silence means

A request under paragraphs I and II is decided by the competent minister, the head of a body not linked to a ministry, the governor, or anyone authorised by any of them. The decision must come within forty-five days, counted from the day the request is logged in that office. If those days run out with no answer, the law treats the employee as retired once the deadline passes, with the retirement entitlements that follow.

That is why the registration date is what the employee builds on later. A request handed over without an incoming number or registration date weakens proof of when the period began and makes a dispute over "has the employee been retired or not" hard to resolve.

Questions to settle before submitting the request

Before submitting, it helps to check three things. First, how much pensionable service the employee actually has according to the Authority's records, not just the appointment date, because absences and unpaid leave do not count. Second, whether there is earlier service that can be added before retirement, because under Article 22 a person who has received the retirement gratuity cannot add any service afterwards unless reappointed. Third, whether the employee qualifies for the end-of-service award, which requires twenty-five years.

This route does not overlap with mandatory retirement at sixty, nor with retirement on health grounds, which rests on a decision of the official medical committee. Each has a different effect on payment of the pension.

Legal basis and sources

  1. Unified Retirement Law No. 9 of 2014, Articles 10, 12 and 21
  2. Law No. 26 of 2019, First Amendment to the Unified Retirement Law

Frequently asked questions

Can I retire after only fifteen years of service?

A request for retirement normally requires age fifty or twenty-five years of service. An employee mother with custody of three or more children, under the conditions above, needs only fifteen years of service.

If I retire at my request before age 45, when is the pension paid?

The rule in Article 21 is that the pension is not paid before age forty-five, nor for the period before it, except in the cases the text names, including retirement on health grounds and the two cases in paragraphs II and III of Article 12.

What happens if my department does not answer my request?

If forty-five days pass from registration of the request without a decision, the employee is deemed retired by law and is entitled to the retirement entitlements.

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

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