The guidelines are organized in five parts:

Part A, Communication Principles, provides guidelines to define the institution’s guiding principles on communication that lay the foundation on the way governance and the management of communication activities will be performed.

Part B, Governance and Management, provides guidelines to establish policies and practices to systematically carry out the wide spectrum of consistent communication-related activities.

These ISSA Guidelines on Communication by Social Security Administrations provide ISSA member institutions with insights into how communication can support the core mandate of the institution. Good communication coupled with modern web and mobile-based technologies improves service quality while reducing administrative costs.

Social security institutions play a vital role in society. As the main point of contact between the government and citizens, such institutions help individuals in situations in which they need support and advice. Citizens must be able to know where to look for support, and to know what support is available, how to access it and what are their rights and responsibilities. Above all, the institution has to deliver on its promise if it is to earn the trust of citizens.

The ISSA Guidelines for Social Security Administration were prepared by the ISSA General Secretariat with the ISSA technical commissions.

The institution adopts a long-term strategy to introduce and constantly improve the coordination and portability of benefits between different schemes in the national jurisdiction as well as between schemes in different countries that have entered into bilateral or multilateral social security agreements.

The institution maintains and constantly improves a service delivery network that accommodates the special needs of difficult-to-cover people.

The institution embraces electronic payment and online services and builds its success as an agency that adopts smart and cost-effective ways of delivering benefits and services and collecting contributions, giving due consideration to technical limitations and the characteristics of the target groups.

The institution designs a citizen-centric service delivery plan that balances service with resources and establishes a road map for improvement.

Social security institutions should effectively provide benefits and services that respond to the specific needs and circumstances of difficult-to-cover groups.

The specific guidelines in this section are:

• Formulating a service delivery plan
• Making optimal use of electronic payment and e-services
• Maintaining an adequate network for personally delivered/virtual services
• Improving coordination and the portability of social security rights and benefits

The institution defines a strategy on administrative error risk management, evasion of contributions and fraud control for difficult-to-cover groups as part of its overall compliance strategy that gives due consideration to the processes, people (internal and external), data and technology.