The Guidelines on Actuarial Work for Social Security have been produced jointly by the International Labour Office (ILO) and the International Social Security Association (ISSA). They were written by Assia Billig and Jean-Claude Ménard from the Office of the Chief Actuary – Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, Canada, Simon Brimblecombe from the ISSA General Secretariat, and Hiroshi Yamabana, André Picard, Cristina Lloret and Anne Drouin from the ILO.

An actuary and/or other social security professional performing actuarial work for a social security institution develops and maintains the high level of professional expertise necessary to perform required actuarial work. In the case of using internal resources to perform actuarial work, the social security institution ensures that actuaries and/or other social security professionals are provided with sufficient opportunities to maintain technical knowledge, professional expertise and appropriate behaviour including the managing of potential conflicts of interest.

In the case where internal resources are used to perform actuarial work, the social security institution maintains adequate staffing levels and provides the actuarial department with the necessary resources to ensure that tasks can be carried out effectively.

This guideline should be read in conjunction with Guidelines 49 and 51.

Actuaries and other social security professionals providing actuarial services for social security schemes possess appropriate qualifications and expertise necessary to fulfil their responsibilities. A qualified actuary is a member of a national (or international) professional actuarial association (or working toward fulfilling requirements to become a member) and follows applicable professional standards, rules of professional conduct and continuing professional development requirements.

The social security institution decides whether internal or external expertise is to be used to carry out the actuarial work related to social security schemes. The social security institution seeks to develop the internal actuarial expertise to perform actuarial work for a social security scheme.

The social security institution and supervising authorities take measures which seek to ensure and maintain the independence of the actuary.

The social security institution should ensure that the skills and experience requirements of internal and external actuaries undertaking work for the organisation are well defined, adequate and monitored. The institution should support the efforts of actuaries in obtaining relevant qualifications and undertake training and continuing professional development activities as set out by national or international professional bodies.

Actuarial involvement is required when both parametric and structural changes to the social security scheme are considered.

The current legal and effective coverage situation are analysed both in the light of current legislation and scheme administration, as well as within the global context of employment trends and population changes which may trigger changes in both legal and effective coverage.

The social security institution regularly assesses the level of protection offered by the scheme through the actuary's analysis of the replacement rate and other relevant adequacy measures. When assessing benefit adequacy of a pension scheme, the social security institution considers retirement income from other sources, such as any universal non-contributory pension, mandatory or voluntary occupational or individual pension plans, and/or legislated end-of-service payments.