Digitalization of the social sphere in Ukraine. Why is this important even in times of war?

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, more than 10 million Ukrainians have changed their place of residence, leaving abroad or moving within the borders of Ukraine to places where it is safer. The number of registered internally displaced persons already stands at 4.6 million, of which 3.2 million people have been displaced since February 24, 2022, and this number continues to grow every month. The number of applicants for one job also increased - instead of four (as of August 1, 2021), there were twelve on average (as of August 1, 2022). That is, even among those who before this phase of the war had a permanent job, money savings and the ability to provide for themselves, many people now need support from the state, charitable funds, volunteers and humanitarian international organizations.

In order to simplify the receipt of social services, assistances and benefits, to make them more convenient and transparent, and to provide the possibility of their registration online, digitalization continues throughout the country. After all, megabytes should "run" between state institutions, not citizens with certificates.

In fact, this necessity has been the focus of attention for more than 15 years. But the first significant and tangible results for citizens began to appear only in 2019 - when the first digital documents and services appeared on the Diia portal and application. The number of Diia users is growing every month as more and more people use smartphones and acquire digital skills.

It is important to know that the development of social services in Diia requires a "foundation" - new processes and information exchanges with the Unified Social Register and components of the Unified Information System of the Social Sphere, which is implemented by the Ministry of Social Policy.

#UISSS - will ensure digitalization of the social sphere and solve a number of problems

In order to digitalize the social sphere and transfer the majority of social services online, including the Diia portal, the Government decided to develop and implement the Unified Information System of the Social Sphere, which simplifies the work and increases the speed of providing services to citizens by social protection workers during personal appeals.

The implementation of the UISSS ensures centralized accumulation, storage and automated processing of information, assignment, payments and formation of payment information for social benefits, as well as replacement and optimization of more than 15 outdated operating information systems and registers.

In addition, in the future, it will provide an opportunity to implement a reform to introduce universal social assistance, which will be easy to administer and which will be more socially fair than the numerous types of assistance that the state pays out now.

UISSS is a transition from regional orientation to an extraterritorial principle, which became a critical necessity in the conditions of hostilities and temporary occupation of parts of the country's regions.

It is important to note that the impossibility of corrupt actions and automation of social services for citizens thanks to the system is an important component of an effective digital State.

Currently, there are the following general problems that digitalization of the social sphere solves:

• A large number of paper certificates, queues at social security offices, a long time to receive the service and not always clear procedure.
• A significant amount of manual work on calculation and payment of benefits in outdated information systems, which increases the probability of errors and causes delays in payments to citizens.
• Lack of established and automated procedures for interaction with banks regarding prompt payment of social benefits.

UISSS and Diia - interaction for people

If Diia is known to every citizen, the Unified Information System of the Social Sphere is mostly encountered by employees of the social protection system and civil servants. This is normal, because UISSS is an internal system that can be compared to the back office and the foundation of digitalization of the social sphere.

For example, I will cite several projects that have been implemented this year thanks to the cooperation of UISSS and #Diia, as well as those that we plan to implement. By the way, our plan in January 2022 was somewhat different from the plan we are following now, because in connection with the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine for the sake of people, a number of priorities were changed.

Back in the spring, as one of the solutions to reduce queues at the regional departments of social protection of the population (DSPP) and Centers for administrative services (CAS), internally displaced persons were able to apply for assistance for IDPs through the Diia application. This mechanism was implemented extremely quickly.

In the coming weeks, IDPs will also be able to submit an application for a change of residence (registration) or an application for deregistration through Diia. Currently, this can only be done in DSPP or CPAS.

In order for more children to have families and a happy childhood, we are implementing a step-by-step adoption service through the Diia portal. In this case, UISSS serves as a data transfer between Diia and the Unified Information and Analytical System "Children". The possibility of submitting an application through the portal for an initial online adoption consultation and submitting an application for adopter candidates has already been implemented.n the fall, we will introduce for adopters on the Diia portal the display of information about children who can be adopted, the extension of the validity period of the opinion on the possibility of being an adopter, as well as the deregistration of candidates for adopters.

I will separately highlight the integration of UISSS with the eDopomoga humanitarian platform in terms of electronic collection of applications from citizens for transfer to international organizations in order to implement additional cash payments from them to Ukrainians. International humanitarian organizations needed up-to-date mobile phone numbers, IBAN bank accounts for payments, as well as people's consent to transfer personal data to them, which was the main goal of the project.

Thanks to the verification through the Unified Socal Register, we ensured that the data submitted in the applications about people's social status corresponded to the information available in the state registers. This ensured the trust of the partners in the data submitted in the applications.

Digitalization of the social sphere, thanks to the interaction and information exchange of UISSS and Diia, will provide citizens with a convenient service available 24/7. At the same time, the opportunity to contact social workers personally will also remain, and their work will become easier, which will allow more attention to be paid to citizens, and not to work in outdated complex interfaces.

UISSS and social workers - help and reduce bureaucracy

Social workers have a colossal workload, in addition to physical, as well as psychological, because they work with people who find themselves in difficult life circumstances.

People working in social security institutions, as a rule, enter the field by calling and with the desire to help others, but over time some of them experience "burnout", which negatively affects customer orientation and the quality of service to citizens. In my opinion, in most cases, this "burnout" can be explained by the excessive complexity of working with systems and documents, which can be significantly reduced due to the digitalization of the social sphere.

Already at this stage, with the implementation of UISSS, we will facilitate the work of employees of social security offices due to the following innovations:

1. Opening personal accounts in automatic mode

2. Automatic verification of documents thanks to implemented information exchanges with state registers of various institutions (automatic verification);

3. Convenient transfer of electronic cases from management to management

Also, with the use of UISSS, the possibility of assigning subsidies through the Pension Fund will be implemented.

Currently, in the communities where IDPs move, the appointment procedure is complicated, because when changing the place of residence, a person must notify the social security department where he was previously registered to stop the accrual of benefits, and then apply for a new place of residence to renew benefits.

This procedure can drag on for several months, during which a person will not receive payments. Therefore, the Ministry of Social Policy is transferring the procedure for providing subsidies and benefits through the Pension Fund, so that citizens can submit documents anywhere in #Ukraine.

Thanks to the digitalization of the social sphere, every social worker will be able to pay more attention to real help to a person, and not to shuffle papers around and manual verification.

The more logical and simpler the processes with which operators work, the faster the service and more friendly smiles for citizens!

#Digitalization #StandWithUkraine