Before August 2015 more than 3 million pensioners of the Mexican Social Security Institute (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social – IMSS) had to visit its offices at least twice a year to confirm their survival to continue receiving pension payments.

With the Survival Verification Improvement Programme for Pensioners (Programa de Mejora para la Comprobación de Supervivencia – PMCS) there is no need for pensioners to visit an Institute’s office every six months. Instead, the pensioners database is compared with birth and death registers, thus preventing excess payments to deceased persons.

Since December 2016, more than 98.9 per cent of pensioners no longer have to confirm their survival in person, which removes the need for some 6.4 million visits a year to the Institute’s offices, generating estimated savings of 381 million pesos (MXN) (21.2 million dollars (USD)) to pensioners.

The new model has been implemented via the IMSS Digital Strategy, which makes it possible to exchange information with other units of the Institute and external entities. The data is standardized and processed using a computerized system that allows bulk comparisons of information by proximity and generates risk profiles of the population of pensioners.