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Abu Dhabi, 23rd February 2022:  Insured individuals, pensioners and representatives from the General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) discussed ways to continue updating data for pensioners and beneficiaries without disruption or errors, suggesting the need to continue investing in pro-active digital services that link to governmental entities. 



The brainstorming meeting, entitled: ‘Innovation Lab’ was held at the Ministry of Possibilities to mark UAE Innovation Month 2023, where GPSSA attendees discussed proactive digital services that are currently catered to serve pensioners over the age of 60, as well as widowers and unmarried women. The current process benefits 29,762 out of 45,900 pensioners and beneficiaries. The rest of the 15,000+ customers are directly contacted instead, and this poses as a huge challenge, since some customers are unreachable, while others do not cooperate.


For that purpose, the importance of coming up with more innovative solutions was discussed during the ‘Innovation Lab’ meeting, with emphasis on ensuring pension disbursements to individuals whose contact details are not available continues and that reliance on solely direct communication is not enough; highlighting the fact that an alternative communication method with stakeholders needs to be introduced. 


Challenges related to the current system were also highlighted, those include: lack of readiness regarding the digital and technical environment across certain entities to connect with one another; the extent by which a customer trusts the current digital process; the existence of clear governance and procedures for the service; data quality; reliance on third parties in the operational process; linking at a time when data may not be fully updated; use of smart applications; as well as inability to use software and modern technology, such as blockchain and many others.


The meeting attendees offered suggestions that can contribute in unifying proactive digital services and linking electronic processes on a larger scale amongst diverse government authorities. This can be done by further strengthening joint partnerships amongst entities whose nature of work is related to the GPSSA, some of which includes relevant ministries, pension funds, banks, telecommunication companies, health and judicial authorities; where data exchange will enrich the overall customer experience and create transparency amongst all parties concerned. The initiative correlates with the UAE’s 2031 forward thinking ecosystem pillar to enhance the government performance and the UAE’s infrastructure and its development according to latest technological methods, including the development of digital infrastructure.


Some of the pensioners at the meeting addressed resolutions to the poor response received by elderly pensioners, suggesting that they may take more interest to udpdate their data if offered incentives. Other ideas shared included: linking with the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship; coordinating awareness programs with HR departments in government authorities in order to raise awareness amongst pensioners and insured individuals, as well as offer insurance and pension awareness workshops for those who are about to retire in cooperation with the education related authorities, while creating a new means of communication to get youth and other entities more involved. Mandating the study of social security and insurance in curriculums was also highlighted.


Increasing the happiness and satisfaction of customers, reducing pension disbursement errors due to customers not updating their data, improving the general performance of the GPSSA through clear service indicators and raising the overall level of awareness regarding pension and social security are on the top of the ‘to-do-list’ in accordance to the meeting.