UNWIND

UN Pensions - what else you need to know - 1

As you already know a group of UN Pensioners from India made a proposal to UNJSPF for restoration of full pension for those who took the lump-sum.  The India argument was that once the actuarial age of life expectancy was reached the full pension should be paid to retirees as the lump-sum was effectively paid back. The India Pensioner proposal has been rejected, please see letter from UNJSPF.  A note on this subject has been posted by the UN Pension group on the front pages of the website www.unjustice.org; please see UN Pension Lump-sum - reduction to be restored.

When my views were requested by the India Pension Group, I disagreed with their proposal in: Does long life qualify reinstatement of full pension for those who availed the lumpsum option? My views have not changed and I agree with the UNJSPF position. However,if any of you agree with the India proposal, you can express your views to the Registrar, UN Appeals Tribunal, UN Secretariat, New York, NY 10017, USA, Email UNAT1@un.org.

UN PENSION FUND - what CEO said and........

What the UNJSPF CEO said in October 2008 is almost about the same that is being said in UNICEF Staff News of January 2009 ( page 8, Retirement, Should I Worry About My Pension?). 

UN IMMIGRANTS

The Anti-immigrant surge will be good reading for those UN expatriates contemplating retirement and living in the USA.

PROFILES IN RETIREMENT - MR. FUAD KRONFOL

Hobbies are good things to have in life. For some people, hobbies have turned into professions, for others, hobbies can carry them through life, keeping them busy even in retirement years. Take one case such as Fuad Kronfol, a former staff member of UNICEF.

Too old to work

It is rare for the voices of retirees to be heard after they have left UNICEF. Regulations require that they retire at 60 or 62.  This anti-aging trend should really pivot on retirees stamina and mental agility rather than chronological age.  However, it can be difficult to find a measure of a biological age to impose retirement. However, the underlying fact is that a lot of expertise is lost when good people retire.

RETIREMENT - THE DISCOMFORT ZONE

In the great book – The Turning Point, Malcolm Gladwell says on page 63:

“If I throw lots of dinner parties and my friends see me there and think I am fun. But, if I could not have lots of dinner parties, and my friends instead tended to see me in lots of different situations over which I had little control – they probably wouldn’t think of me anymore.”