The actuary, on behalf of the social security scheme, assists national authorities in complying with the national and international statistical reporting standards. When carrying out calculations required for the purpose of compiling national accounts, government financial statistics and/or any other national and international statistical reports, the actuary uses relevant methodology and assumptions.
Guideline code
ACT_04400
Mechanism
Mechanism
- Unless otherwise prescribed by the requirements of national and international statistical reporting, for schemes financed using PAYG or a partial funding approach, the calculations of liabilities and assets should take into account future contributions as well as future benefits of current and future contributors. When national and international statistical reporting standards require an actuarial methodology that does not reflect the financing approach of the scheme, a separate disclosure of the results using the methodology consistent with the scheme’s financing approach is recommended in addition to the results based on the prescribed method under the applicable requirements of national and international statistical reporting.
- An actuary should set out the details of the methodology and assumptions in the actuarial valuation report for national and international statistical reporting purposes and provide additional results where appropriate to ensure full information is provided to policy makers enabling them to obtain a fair and complete picture of the financial sustainability of the scheme.
- It is recommended that the actuary presents sensitivity analysis results that illustrate how the required disclosed information is impacted by the use of alternative assumptions. Guideline 8 provides more details on illustrating uncertainty of results.
- The actuary should liaise with relevant national authorities as well as other stakeholders in respect of the purposes, methodologies and disclosures of assets and liabilities in government statistical reports. These methods must be defined and explained in the actuarial valuation report for national and international statistical reporting purposes.
- The report on the actuarial valuation for national and international statistical reporting purposes should specify compliance with relevant actuarial and statistical standards.
- In communicating the results, the actuary should explain the differences between the requirements of national and international statistical reporting and the information presented in the actuarial valuation for assessing financial sustainability of the social security scheme.
Structure
Principles
- The social security institution may be asked by national authorities, including the national statistical office, ministry of finance, ministry of planning and other relevant ministries, to provide information on social securty schemes that comply with the national and international statistical reporting standards, such as the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA) and government finance statistics. In such situations, the input of the actuary should be sought for preparing the calculations and providing disclosures in respect of the social security scheme(s).
- The actuary should be aware of the reporting principles, requirements and methodologies of national accounts and government financial statistics, as well as other national and international statistical reporting standards in performing his or her work.
- Unless otherwise prescribed by statistical reporting standards, the methodology and assumptions for preparing inputs for national accounts and government statistical reporting must be consistent with those adopted for the actuarial valuation of the social security scheme and with the financing approach adopted for the social security scheme.
- When the methodology for preparing inputs for national accounts and government statistical reporting is not consistent with the financing approach adopted for the social security scheme, the social security institution should encourage relevant national authorities to disclose, in a supplementary note, alternative calculations consistent with the financing approach for the social security scheme, together with explanations on the different purposes of different sets of results and a discussion on long-term sustainability.
- An actuary is responsible for applying and respecting appropriate actuarial standards of practice in his or her work.
Title HTML
Guideline 38. Compliance with requirements of national and international statistical reporting
Type
Guideline_1
Weight
47