2015-UNAT-575, Gomez
UNAT held that the staff member’s retirement benefit from the UNJSPF including the monthly periodic pension benefit was not subject to taxation and/or payment of statutory deductions and that therefore, any challenge with respect to the application and meaning of the words “gross” and “net” was merely semantic. UNAT held that the ASHI premium was a voluntary payment that was deducted by the UNJSPF at the behest of a beneficiary and therefore could not be treated as or deemed to be a statutory deduction. UNAT dismissed the appeal.
The staff member and his former spouse signed a divorce notary deed in Austria, in which it was agreed that he would pay to his former spouse 50 per cent of his net base pension once retired from active service. He subsequently appealed a decision of the Standing Committee of the UNJSPB to deny his request under Article 45 of the UNJSPF Regulations that his former spouse be paid 50 per cent of his monthly periodic pension benefit after the deduction of his after-service health insurance (ASHI) premium. The staff member asserted that the Standing Committee erred in law in its interpretation of the phrase “net base pension”, thereby derogating from the ordinary definition of that phrase.
A net base pension benefit is the sum that is left after compulsory/statutory deductions. Where a staff member’s pension benefit from the UNJSPF is not subject to taxation and/or payment of statutory deductions, there is no “net base” to be considered.