At the government session chaired by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov, the issue of digitalization of the social and labor sphere was considered. Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Serik Shapkenov and Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry Bagdat Mussin presented their reports.

So, according to Shapkenov, currently only 45 public services are provided in the social and labor sphere. The Ministry is taking comprehensive measures to digitize these services in order to provide them to the population in a more convenient and modern form.

“First of all, as a result of the analysis of current business processes, a number of factors hindering the development of public services have been identified, in particular, the lack of historical data necessary for the appointment of pensions and benefits, the lack of registration in the database of mobile citizens. In this regard, we are working on reengineering and transformation of the processes for the provision of public services,” said the head of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

In total, 42 types or 93% of 45 public services are provided in electronic format, of which 21 services or 43% can be obtained on an initiative basis. In general, in 2021, 12.6 million public services were provided in the social and labor sphere, of which 9.1 million or 72% were provided electronically. This is 12% more than in 2020. In general, by 2025, the agency plans to transfer all public services to 100% electronic format.

“In order to expand the ability of the population to receive services, in October last year, the Ministry, together with Kaspi Bank and Halyk Bank, implemented services for assigning payments in connection with the birth of a child in their mobile applications. In the fourth quarter of 2021 alone, more than 16.5 thousand families with children received services through a mobile application while at home. Work will continue to introduce this practice through mobile applications of other banks,” said Shapkenov.

In addition, in order to optimize the procedures for obtaining public services, the principle of extraterritoriality has been introduced for 17 types of services. That is, citizens can apply to any public service center regardless of location and apply for public services. In the fourth quarter of 2021, more than 22.6 thousand citizens received services on an extraterritorial basis.

Also, in order to save operating costs, a combined transfer of several social payments assigned to one citizen into one payment was carried out. Thanks to this, in 7 months of 2021, we managed to save 3 billion tenge. The annual savings will amount to 6 billion tenge.

Also, according to the Minister of Labor, one of the main areas of digitalization of the social and labor sphere is proactive services. At the same time, in order to receive public services, citizens will not need to visit public service centers, akimats or other authorities. Comprehensive measures are being taken in this direction with the Digital Transformation Center of the Ministry of Digital Development.

In the second half of 2021, the share of proactive services related to fertility increased from 12% to 53%. For example, last year about 440 thousand children were born, of which the mothers of 233 thousand children received social benefits proactively, responding to a message that comes to the phone. In addition, mothers with 4 or more children are automatically assigned benefits for large families. Proactivity in this service increased from 1% to 41%.

“Proactive assets have been increased for benefits for mothers with many children awarded with pendants Altyn Alqa, Kumis Alqa from 9% to 24%, and for social benefits in case of disability from 6% to 21%. This year we plan to bring the proactive format services up to 25 types,” Serik Shapkenov informed.

He also noted that when providing public services, the ministry relies not on a separate service, but on the life situation of a citizen. So, when establishing disability and receiving benefits and technical means of rehabilitation, citizens deprived of health have to apply to four instances — a polyclinic, a department of medical and social expertise, a public service center, and an akimat. At the meeting of the National Council of Public Trust in February 2021, the head of state instructed to create the most comfortable conditions for people with disabilities and remove paperwork. In this regard, the Ministry of Labor, together with the Ministries of Health and Digital Development, have taken measures to establish disability and provide rehabilitation measures to persons with disabilities. To date, in all 17 regions of the country, a "pilot project" has been launched on the correspondence format of conducting a medical and social examination to establish disability.

At the same time, a citizen applies only to a polyclinic at the place of residence, the rest of the processes take place without human participation through the integration of information systems. As of Feb. 23, 2022, 6,753 applications have been considered in absentia. In general, this year it is planned to cover 20% of citizens with disabilities with this approach.

Also, a Social Services Portal has been introduced for persons with disabilities since 2021. Previously, citizens with disabilities were sent to akimats and public service centers to receive the necessary rehabilitation services and technical equipment. It was very inconvenient, it took a lot of time, the services were rendered late.

“The portal allows you to independently choose service providers, and the state reimburses the cost of goods or services. Due to this, the terms of receiving services in some cases were reduced from 6 months to 2 weeks. As a result, in 2021, more than 371,000 services were provided through the Portal. The implementation of rehabilitation programs increased from 62% in 2019 to 88% in 2021. This year, we plan that the level of implementation of rehabilitation programs will exceed 90%,” said the head of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Since November 2020, a pilot project has been gradually launched to provide services to employment centers online. Previously, citizens had to apply to the employment center to find a job and register as unemployed, and to receive social benefits in connection with the loss of a job, to the Public Service Center. And now these services can be obtained online through the Electronic Labor Exchange. In addition, the period for registering as unemployed has been reduced from 10 to 3 days. In 2021, 149 thousand people were registered as job seekers, of which 33% were registered online, 60% of citizens were employed online.

According to the Minister Mussin, in 2021, a total of about 454 thousand services were provided in a proactive format. This means that Kazakhstanis have gained access to public services without applying to government agencies.

“At the same time, at the site of the Digital Transformation Center, we realized that it was necessary not only to limit ourselves to a proactive format, but also to completely exclude the intervention of employees of public service centers and the Ministry of Labor from the process of providing services. That is, it is necessary to reengineer processes. To do this, together with the Ministry of Labor, we will consolidate the appropriate algorithms and improve information systems,” said Bagdat Mussin.

So, for example, now, while receiving services related to benefits for pregnancy and childbirth, citizens:

- visit Citizen Service Centers;

- expect the service to be rendered within 8 working days;

- in the process of providing services, 7 employees sign.

“And thanks to the new algorithms, the human factor will be completely absent and the service will be displayed automatically, without recourse. The citizen will be notified of the progress of the service via SMS. So, in the future, we will continue to work on transferring public services to a proactive format,” the Minister of Digital Development informed.

By integrating information systems and collecting data into one database, it will be possible to achieve the implementation of the digital family card project. This project is to ensure the possibility of prompt resolution of social, labor and other difficult situations by timely informing responsible persons and government agencies. Currently, by means of a digital family card, it is envisaged to provide the possibility of promptly solving difficult situations in the field of social labor. Within the framework of this project, the necessary information was selected from 58 databases, reflecting the situation of the family. All this information will be collected in one database.

The main goal was to determine 5 criteria for assessing the family. These are:

1. economic situation (income);
2. health;
3. living conditions;
4. social conditions (status);
5. level of education.

Based on these criteria, it will be possible to automatically determine the situation of the family, and then offer the necessary comprehensive support measures in the field of social protection, employment, education, health care, housing assistance, legal support, etc.