Understanding Monthly Benefits
Variations in your monthly benefit amount are most likely due to one of the following reasons:
Your monthly After Service Health Insurance (ASHI) premium deductions
If you have opted for After Service Health Insurance (ASHI) premiums to be deducted directly from your monthly pension entitlement, variations in your monthly benefit amounts can be due to fluctuations in the monthly premium amounts deducted by ASHI. As the Fund has no authority and no insight into ASHI matters, which are handled by the UN Health and Insurance Section (not the UNJSPF), we are unable to provide detailed information on how such premiums are constituted. Therefore, we invite you to directly contact ASHI and inquire about details. Please address your ASHI email communications to: ashi@un.org. Or, you may wish to contact ASHI directly through a ‘Contact Us ticket’ available on the UN Health and Life Insurance website at the following link: http://www.un.org/insurance/inquiries.
Your Bank charges
There may be charges applied by your bank. These charges are beyond the control of the Fund; therefore, the UNJSPF cannot accept responsibility for them. You may wish to discuss this matter with your bank for clarification on the exact nature of the deductions made from the amount transmitted by the Fund; you may wish to try and negotiate with your bank and request them to waive any charges given the nature of the payment, i.e., pension benefit. The levying of service fees has become an internationally accepted practice amongst banks, and this practice can be expected only to increase. While the Fund absorbs all fees levied as remittance fees, we regret that we have no control over any fees that have been contractually authorized by your bank with its correspondent bank.
Discontinuation of child benefit
If you were in receipt of a child’s benefit from the Fund, paid together with your own pension benefit, and your child reached the age of 21, you will notice a reduction in your monthly pension benefit amount, as of the month following that during which your child turned 21. Indeed, a child’s benefit is normally payable until the end of the month during which your dependent child turns 21 and is discontinued effective the following month. Click here for more information on child’s benefit.
Quarterly Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA)
Your monthly pension benefit amount can change every quarter due to the application of the quarterly cost of living adjustment (COLA). The Fund issues Quarterly Statements in which retirees and beneficiaries are informed of changes in their entitlement amount due to COLA. Click here for more information about the Quarterly Statements.