The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) is undertaking a digital transformation journey in line with its C.A.R.E. strategy 2024 and beyond.
A milestone in this journey was the launch of the award-winning Digital Certificate of Entitlement, which provides retirees around the world with a tamper-proof digital annual verification option. UNJSPF is also a key contributor to its spinoff, the UN Digital ID, helping to advance secure and streamlined digital identity solutions for UN stakeholders. The launch of UNJSPF Connect, a new Customer Relationship Management system that simplifies case management, is another step to provide its clients with better experience of pension services.
The UNJSPF Member Self-Service upgrade
Among the next client-oriented upgrades are the enhancements to the Member Self-Service (MSS) portal. The portal is the clients’ gateway to pension services and allows them to submit documents and forms to the Fund. Through MSS, participants and beneficiaries can update their email address, access important pension documents, submit pre-compiled forms, and run estimates of future benefits or benefits under the two-track option.
Participants can also access their Annual Pension Statement, and fill out online requests to validate, restore, or transfer their pension rights. Beneficiaries can track all payments from the Fund as well as After Service Health Insurance premium deductions; subscribe to receive the Statement of Benefits; access the PDF of the annual Certificate of Entitlement (CE) form, unless they are paid under the two-track system, and track whether their returned CE was received by the Fund; and also submit an initial Emergency Fund request in case of severe financial hardship.
The new MSS will feature a new look and feel, more direct access to pension information, documents and forms, and strengthened cybersecurity through the introduction of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
While strong passwords are crucial, MFA significantly increases protection against unauthorized access, making it much more difficult for hackers to breach their accounts. The MFA method chosen by the Fund entails email-based verification codes. Therefore, a secure code will be sent to the client’s registered email addresses after he or she enters their username and password, which he or she must enter next to complete the verification process before accessing their account.
The new MSS features are upcoming by the first quarter of 2026, while the MFA has been implemented at the time of this publication.
What does this transition mean for participants, retirees and beneficiaries?
The next time users try to access their MSS account, they will be prompted to register again in MSS to set up MFA. They will have to provide their Unique Identification Number (UID), first and last name, date of birth, email address, and respond to a set of security questions. They will then receive an email to set a password for their account. In accordance with best security practices and UNJSPF access control policies, they will be required to create a secure password that is more than 12 characters long and contains a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
Once the registration process is finalized, to access their MSS account clients will need to provide their username, password and a secure code sent to their registered email.
To do so, they will need to:
1. Log in with their username and password. If the details are correct, they will receive a secure code on their registered email.
2. Enter the security code on the log in page.
Smart forms and e-Pension
Simultaneously with the upgrades to the Member Self-Service portal, the Fund is working to enhance its forms: soon, updated and new forms reflecting recent changes to the UNJSPF Regulations and Rules, with a more intuitive look and feel, and relevant instructions will become available to all clients, both on the Forms page: unjspf.org/resources/forms, and in the MSS portal. A specific information campaign will be launched soon through the Fund’s website and social media accounts.
The e-Pension enhancement aims at further improving efficiency and user experience within Member Self-Service and its go-live is planned in the coming months. The idea underneath e-Pension is to provide clients with an option to submit forms entirely online, in alternative to the paper option.
Automating Unique Identification Number retrieval
Another relevant enhancement is the upcoming automation process for the retrieval of UIDs for participants who will be able to receive them on their employing organization’s email account.
HOW CAN I GET FURTHER ASSISTANCE?
Step-by-step guides and tutorial videos are available on the MSS page:
unjspf.org/resources/about-member-self-service
There are multiple ways to contact the Fund. Find out more: