As stipulated in article 21(a) of the UNJSPF Regulations, if you are a staff member of a UNJSPF member organization and are not expressly excluded from participation by the terms of your appointment, your participation commences upon your being granted an appointment for 6 months or more, OR upon completing 6 months of continuous service without an interruption of more than 30 days, whichever occurs first.

No, participation in the Fund is mandatory once you fulfill the requirements of article 21(a) of the UNJSPF Regulations.

No action is required on your part. If you are a staff member of a UN family organization, your employing organization informs the Fund of your contractual status and family composition by issuing a personnel action form (PA). The Fund then enrolls you as a participant by assigning a pension number, which is subsequently relayed, to you through your Administrative/ Executive Office.

On the other hand, if you are a staff member of a specialized agency, e.g. FAO, the Secretary of the Staff Pension Committee of that Agency handles your participation in the Fund. The relevant information is forwarded to the Central Secretariat of the Fund for recording in the Fund’s Participants Data Base.

Note: Your Unique Identification number (identification number assigned by the Fund) is different from your index number (identification number assigned by your employing organization).

The Pension Fund prepares a report annually (Annual Pension Statement) that contains your personal and financial data as reported by your employing organization for the prior year. Effective from May 2004, the Annual Pension Statement is available to you only on your Member Self-Service account.

It is important for you to review the Annual Pension Statement and to contact your employing organization and/or the Pension Fund should any of the data generated appear to be inaccurate. Please remember that the Annual Pension Statement reflects the personal and financial data reported by your employing organization(s) for the previous year(s). Thus the annual statement issued in May 2022 will contain data through 31 December 2021, and any changes in your circumstances in 2022 will be reflected in your next annual statement available in May 2023.

You are covered against death and disability from the beginning of your participation. Upon separation from service, you will become entitled to a pension benefit based on your age and length of contributory service. For retirement, death and disability benefits, additional factors such as an average pensionable remuneration (PR) and a rate of accumulation are also taken into account. The rate of accumulation is the rate at which your retirement benefit accumulates for each year of contributory service. The rates vary with the date of your participation.

If your participation commenced before 1983 the rate of accumulation is 2 % of your average PR rate for the first 30 years of service and 1% thereafter. If your participation commenced on or after 1 January 1983 the rate of accumulation is 1.5% for the first five years, 1.75% for the next five years, 2%for the next twenty-five years and 1% thereafter. The maximum accumulation rate attainable is 70%.

Once you become a participant, contributions are automatically deducted from your salary each month and reported to the Fund on your behalf. The current deduction is 7.9% of your pensionable remuneration rate. Your employing organization’s portion is twice your amount, i.e. 15.8% of your pensionable remuneration rate. Thus a total of 23.7% of your pensionable remuneration is contributed to the UNJSPF.

Yes. Interest accrues at the rate of 3.25% per year while you remain an active participant. Interest accrues only until your separation date.

No. There are no provisions in the Fund’s Regulations and Rules for making loans, or advance payments in anticipation of separation benefits, to participants. Furthermore, an active participant cannot receive any benefits and/or make any withdrawals from his/her pension contributions.

A defined benefit plan provides a participant with a percentage of final average remuneration at the time of retirement. For the UNJSPF other factors such as length of contributory service, age and rate of accumulation are also taken into account.

If you are seconded or loaned to another UNJSPF member organization, the organizations concerned would forward the related documentation to the Fund and your pension record would be updated accordingly. Your participation would be continuous without any break in your service.

If you join/rejoin another UNJSPF member organization within 36 months of your separation without a benefit being paid, your participation is deemed to be continuing. No action on your part is required since the member organizations involved would report your separation and re-entry dates. However, if applicable, your records will show a break in service between contracts.

It depends on the organization from which you are transferring. Transfer of pension rights into or from the UNJSPF is permitted only if a bilateral transfer agreement between the organization concerned and the UNJSPF is in effect. A listing of UNJSPF Transfer Agreements is available here.