Ukrainians to submit fewer paper documents to receive social benefits

The Ministry of Social Policy is vigorously working on the comprehensive digitalisation of the social support system to ensure that social services and support are provided in a more convenient way and without unnecessary paperwork.

As one of the important steps towards digitalisation of social benefits and services, the Ministry of Social Policy has drafted and the Government has adopted a resolution aimed to reduce the amount of paperwork that Ukrainians currently submit to receive social benefits.

As the Ministry of Social Policy deployed the Unified Social Information System (USIS) during the full-scale invasion, a significant amount of information required for the allocation of social benefits to Ukrainians has already been digitised and is available in this system. As a result, it is now possible to refuse to accept a large number of paper documents when awarding payments and benefits. The information that is already available in the USIS will be pulled from this system, so people do not need to confirm it again and submit paper documents.

In other words, a person who has already received a payment or benefit and whose data is entered into the USIS will only need to submit an application and present an identification document (for example, a passport) to re-issue it (or to issue a new one). The rest of the information can be obtained by the social security officer using digital solutions. If the potential recipient's data is not yet in the system, then, of course, he or she will need to provide all the necessary documents.

"Until now, social security authorities have been processing millions of applications manually. And Ukrainians were often forced to go to institutions and stand in queues to collect the entire package of documents required for the payments and benefits be assigned. The abandonment of paper copies of documents that are already available in our electronic system is an important step for the development of the social security system. It saves time for people applying for support, as well as for the professionals who provide it. And they have the opportunity to devote time to the needs of a person and to communicating to him or her," said Oksana Zholnovych, Minister of Social Policy.

Information exchanges will allow to

- save time for both social workers and recipients of benefits, which they used to spend on collecting and processing paper documents;

- speed up the processing of applications;

- reduce corruption risks.

The USIS was launched in the first year of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and is now used in all regions of the country, with the number of users - social sector professionals - exceeding 15,000. The USIS covers dozens of social sector registers and databases and provides for information exchanges with other state registers to enable people in need of social support to apply for it anywhere in Ukraine without having to collect paper documents.