Mobility and Hardship

1. This policy takes effect on 1 July 2016, and introduces changes to the former allowances of
Mobility Allowance and Additional Hardship Allowance, and amends elements of the former
version of the Hardship Allowance. It also records the discontinuation of the Non-Removal
Allowance on the same date, and addresses transitional arrangements from the old scheme
to the new one.

Elements of the Scheme

2. The mobility and hardship scheme consists of the following non-pensionable allowances:

a) A mobility incentive, which varies according to the number of assignments to field

duty stations and the purpose of which is to provide an incentive for the geographic
mobility of staff in support of field operations;

b) A hardship allowance, the purpose of which is to compensate for the varying

degrees of hardship at different field duty stations;

c) A non-family service allowance, the purpose of which is to recognize service in non-

family duty stations.

Eligibility

3. Staff in the Professional and higher categories (i.e., International Professional staff), and
staff in the Field Service category are eligible for payment of the allowances under this
scheme, provided they meet the requirements set out below and subject to the particular
conditions governing each allowance, as described in the following paragraphs.

4. Eligibility for the mobility incentive normally requires a geographic move to a new field duty
station, for a period of one year or longer (unless otherwise provided).

5. The allowances under this scheme are not considered expatriate benefits, and may be paid
to eligible staff members serving in their home country.

6. When staff members eligible for payment of the allowances are on travel status, and receive
a daily subsistence allowance as a result, the incentives/allowances under the Mobility and
Hardship scheme shall continue to be paid on the basis of their appointment at the parent
duty station. Payment of the incentives/allowances is subject to official change of duty
station.

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Category and designation of duty stations

7. All duty stations are designated by the International Civil Service Commission in one of six
categories: H, and A to E. Duty stations in category H are headquarters and similarly
designated locations where the United Nations has no development or humanitarian
assistance programme, or locations in countries that are members of the European Union.
The A to E categories comprise all other duty stations, classified by order of difficulty of
conditions of life and work. Staff members are informed of the category of their duty station
on an annual basis or more frequently if there is a change in classification.

8. For the purpose of payment of the non-family service allowance, a duty station is designated
as “non-family” by the Chairman of the International Civil Service Commission when the
medium- or longer-term presence of non-essential staff and/or recognized spouses and/or
dependent children in the staff member’s duty station is deemed dangerous or unsuitable
for reasons of their safety and security. A decision regarding whether to designate a duty
station as “non-family” is normally taken within six months of the declaration of evacuation
or relocation of non-essential staff and/or family members.

Amounts
9. The amount of the allowances payable to each eligible staff member may vary by grade level
and dependency status. Annex 1 shows the applicable amounts by individual circumstances.

Mobility Incentive
Qualifying service

10. To qualify for payment of the mobility allowance, a staff member must have five years’ prior
continuous service on a fixed-term or continuing appointment as a staff member of the
United Nations common system. When qualifying service has been broken by separation
from service as defined in UN Staff Rule 9.1 , such service accrued before the separation
shall be forfeited and a new period shall begin upon the staff member’s re-employment.
Service credited towards the five-year service requirement may include service as a staff
member in one of the categories eligible for payment of the allowance as well as prior
service in a non-eligible category when allowed under (see section on counting
assignments).

11. At all duty stations classified in categories A to E, the mobility incentive is payable from the
second assignment, provided the requirement of five years’ consecutive service has been
met.

12. Service shall not be considered as broken by periods of special leave of less than 30 days,
but full months of special leave without pay shall not be credited towards the five-year
service requirement.

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13. Staff members holding temporary appointments are not eligible to receive the mobility
incentive regardless of any exceptional extension of their appointment beyond 364 days.

Determining the assignment number

14. For the purpose of this policy, the term “assignment”, when determining the assignment
number of the staff member, shall be understood to mean either the initial appointment of
a staff member to a duty station, or reassignment for a period of one year or longer of a
staff member to a new duty station beyond commuting distance, including duty stations
classified as headquarters duty stations.

15. Initial appointments of one year or longer, and assignments of one year or longer which
involve a change of duty station, shall each be counted as one assignment, provided the
staff member completes a minimum one year period of service in each of the relevant duty
stations.

16. If a staff member is assigned to a duty station for a period of one year or longer and such
time is subsequently reduced at the initiative of the Organization to less than one year, such
service may be counted as an assignment on an exceptional basis.

17. In other cases, counting of assignments shall be made as follows:

a) Exceptional periods of service on daily subsistence allowance for a period of one year or
longer at the same duty station are counted as one assignment, but only upon
reassignment to a new parent duty station;

b) All service in the General Service and National Professional Officer category counts for
one assignment, irrespective of the number of assignments in those categories.

c) Transfers, secondments and loans to other organizations of the United Nations common
system shall be counted in the same manner as movements within the Organization;

d) Periods of service under a fixed-term appointment of one year or longer as a Junior

Professional Officer, shall be counted in the same way as other internationally recruited
staff. Periods of service as a United Nations Volunteer are not counted.

e) Periods of service on a temporary appointment are not counted.

Duration

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18. After five consecutive years at one duty station, payment of the mobility incentive will
cease. The count towards the five years begins as of the date of appointment or assignment
at the duty station. Periods of service away from the parent duty station on assignment or
travel status shall not suspend the counting of five years. Full months of special leave
without pay shall suspend the counting of five years, and the count shall resume upon
return to service.

19. In the exceptional case of staff members who remain at the same duty station at the explicit
request of the Organization or for compelling humanitarian reasons, the payment of the
mobility incentive may continue for a maximum period of one additional year, for a total of
six consecutive years at one duty station.

Hardship allowance

20. The hardship allowance is payable for assignments to duty stations classified in categories B,
C, D and E, for the duration of each assignment according to the applicable level of hardship
classification of the duty station.

Non-family Service Allowance

21. The non-family service allowance is payable to eligible staff members who are assigned to
duty stations officially designated as non-family. No payment of the allowance shall be made
when the presence of a family member is exceptionally approved by the designated official
irrespective of whether other eligible family members continue to remain outside of the
non-family duty station.

22. If there is a change in the designation of the duty station from family to non-family status
during the course of a staff member’s appointment or assignment to the duty station, the
non-family service allowance shall be payable as of the effective date of the change in the
duty station designation.

23. If there is a change in the designation of the duty station from non-family to family during
the course of a staff member’s appointment assignment to the duty station, the allowance
shall be discontinued following a transition period:
a) For staff members with no dependents, the allowance is discontinued three months
after the effective date of change in the duty station designation;

b) For staff members with dependents, the allowance may be paid up to six months
following the effective date of change in the duty station designation or until an
eligible family member joins the staff member at the duty station, whichever is
earlier.

Relationship to other allowances and entitlements

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24. Amounts paid on account of the mobility and hardship scheme shall not be taken into
account in the calculation of the rental subsidy to which staff members may be entitled.

25. A staff member is not eligible for the non-family service allowance while concurrently
receiving the security evacuation allowance (SEA) for eligible family members. Accordingly,
payment of the security evacuation allowance shall cease upon payment of the non-family
service allowance.

26. A staff member in receipt of the non-family service allowance who is temporarily relocated
or evacuated from a non-family duty station will continue to be eligible for payment of the
security evacuation allowance for himself or herself as long as he/she remain assigned to
the non-family duty station.

Transitional measures

27. As a transitional measure, staff members in receipt of the former non-removal allowance on
30 June 2016 shall continue to receive payment of the allowance for up to five years at the
same duty station or until the staff member moves to another duty station, whichever is
earlier.

28. Eligible staff members who moved to their new assignment before 1 July 2016 shall
continue to receive current mobility allowance amounts up to 5 years at the same duty
station, or until they are re-assigned to another duty station, whichever is earlier.

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Annex 1

Mobility Incentives

NOTE: Mobility incentive is not paid for assignments to category H duty stations, and applies
only to assignments of a year or longer to category A-E duty stations.

Annual amounts in US dollars

P-1 to P-3 and FS-1–FS6

Duty Station Number of Assignments
Category 1 2-3 4-6 7+
A-E 0 6 500 8 125 9 750

P-4 to P-5 and FS 7

Duty Station Number of Assignments
Category 1 2-3 4-6 7+
A-E 0 8 125 10 156 12 188

D-1 and above

Duty Station Number of Assignments

Category
1 2-3 4-6 7+
A-E 0 9 750 12 188 14 625

Hardship Allowances

NOTE: Hardship allowances do not apply to assignments to categories H and A, and only apply
to assignments to duty stations in categories B-E.

Annual amounts in US dollars

Duty Station P-1 to P-3 P-4 to P-5 D-1 and above

Category and FS1–FS6 and FS-7
B 5 810 6 970 8 140
C 10 470 12 780 15 110
D 13 950 16 280 18 590
E 17 440 20 920 23 250

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Non-family Service Allowances1

Payable to staff members assigned to duty stations designated by the ICSC as non-family

Monthly amounts in US dollars

Staff members with a dependent Staff member without a dependent

1 650 625

1
When two staff members are married to each other and each is entitled to the non-family
service allowance, each shall be paid at the rate applicable to a staff member without a
dependent. If there are one or more dependent children, the non-family service allowance shall
be paid at the rate applicable to a staff member with a dependent to the staff member in
respect of whom the child or children are recognized as dependants. The same provision shall
apply when one of the spouses is a staff member of another organization of the United Nations
common system.

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