Since 2005, Kazakhstan has introduced a system of compulsory social insurance, which allows providing additional social security for working citizens. Over the years of the system's formation, the number of its participants has reached almost 7 million people. Nurakhmet Iskakov, director of the branch of the State Social Insurance Fund of Zhambyl region, told about the work of the social insurance fund in the Zhambyl region in an interview with Kazinform agency.

- Nurakhmet Seidakhmetovich, the branch that you head unites about 250 thousand participants. With the population of the Zhambyl region of 1.2 million people, one in five receives social assistance from the state. Tell us, who is eligible for financial assistance from the social insurance fund?

- Those citizens who have certain risks in their lives receive them. These are loss of work, breadwinner, disability, as well as pregnancy, childbirth, child care, social contributions, as well as the number of participants in the system in the Zhambyl region, varies annually. In 2022, we had 256 010 people in the system, where 131 604 of them are women and 124 406 men. In 2023, 247 426 participants were registered, where 117 702 are men and 129 704 women.

After the adoption of the Social Code, from July 1, 2023, a new category appeared in social insurance - individual assistants who accompany people with disabilities of the first group who have difficulty in moving. And from January 1, 2025, the system will cover individuals who receive income under civil contracts.

- And what payments are made the most?

- In our region, 90% of payments were made in support of motherhood and childhood. Paid child care has been increased from January 2023 from one year to one and a half years. Social payments are paid from the social insurance fund to families with children, orphans, and child care. This payment is calculated from the average monthly income and multiplied by the corresponding coefficient. If a woman has a salary of 300 thousand, then she will receive 120 thousand tenge for child care during 18 months. And a certain amount of child care is paid to unemployed women from the republican budget. To receive these payments, you currently do not need to go anywhere, you can arrange all this using a digital signature in the application of Halyk Bank and Kaspiy Bank. There is no need to provide any supporting documents, since now all the necessary information has been digitized and is available to organizations involved in payments. If a person addresses us, we can already see everything using the IIN. The paperwork is over.

- Not so long ago, the media wrote about a resident of the Merken district, who complained to the Department of Civil Service Affairs in Taraz about the refusal of the regional branch of the social insurance fund to appoint a social payment due to the birth of a child of 3.9 million tenge. And the department found that the decision to refuse was unjustified. How can you comment on this situation?

- In this situation, I want to clarify that the department mistakenly stated "payment in connection with the birth of a child." There can be no payment due to the birth of a child. The law refers to a "one-time state benefit in connection with the birth of a child", its amount is fixed, and such an allowance is assigned and paid by the Department of Labor and Social Protection, and not by the social insurance fund.

This woman actually applied to us for social payment for pregnancy and childbirth, which is paid from the social insurance fund. The amount of such payment is calculated from income for the last 12 months and multiplied by a factor of 4.2. Medical institutions establish a woman's temporary incapacity for pregnancy and childbirth for 126 days – this is 70 days before childbirth and 56 days after childbirth. When divided by 30 calendar days, a coefficient of 4.2 is obtained. That is, we pay 4.2 of the salary at one time.

In this case, the woman applies for the appointment of a "social payment for pregnancy and childbirth." She works in two individual entrepreneurs, while employers made social contributions untimely — this often happens. The revision, which is carried out within the framework of the law, showed that one individual entrepreneur does not work at all, and the other individual entrepreneur not only did not show her income, but also did not indicate her as an employee. In this regard, we have sent the documents for revision. The individual entrepreneur had to confirm the income and provide us with the relevant documents, but they could not do this, and therefore the woman was refused this payment. After that, she appealed to the Agency for Civil Service Affairs with a complaint that our foundation had acted incorrectly. In fact, she was reasonably refused by the Fund. The Agency for Civil Service Affairs instructed us to send written requests to those individual entrepreneurs where this woman works. And only after that, they began to submit declarations and confirmed her income.

In such cases, it is the fault of employers who do not submit reports on time, do not show income, do not recognize their employees and do not make deductions for them. The Tax Committee accepted the declarations, and we were provided with all the supporting documents. Based on this information, she was assigned a corresponding payment from the fund. There was no unjustified refusal or unreasonably requested documents from the Fund, everything was carried out in accordance with the instructions and the Labor Code.

- Please explain what determines the amount of the payment?

- On the regularity, timeliness and completeness of the payment of social contributions. In 2023, approximately 74 thousand people in Zhambyl region received social payments from the fund in total sum of 45.6 billion tenge.

Social payment in case of loss of income in connection with pregnancy and childbirth, adoption of a newborn child, or children, from the fund is assigned for all days of maternity leave. Last year, 17.9 thousand expectant mothers in the amount of 22.8 billion tenge received such a one-time payment in our region. During the same period, 36.3 thousand people became recipients of social payments for loss of income in connection with child care, 17.9 billion tenge was paid from the fund.

- From what sources do finances for social contributions come?

- The financial resources of the system are formed at the expense of social contributions, which are paid by employers for employees at their own expense. In addition, individual entrepreneurs and individuals who are engaged in private practice pay social contributions for themselves. The legislation establishes a fixed monthly rate of social contributions in the amount of 3.5% of the employee's income. But there are certain restrictions - no less than one and no more than seven minimum wages. That is, with a salary of 85 thousand tenge in 2024, the monthly minimum amount of social contributions will be 2975 tenge, and with the maximum allowable income for calculating deductions – 595 thousand tenge. In this case, 20 825 tenge is payable to the fund.

- And what types of social payments are there?

- Two long-term disability and survivors payments are provided, they are paid from the fund in addition to a similar state social benefit, which is assigned from the budget. In 2023, 4,9 thousand working citizens with disabilities and 2,9 thousand families who lost a breadwinner received such payments in our region. Taking into account the fact that the assigned amounts of these payments were doubled that year, more than 2.7 million tenge was allocated from the fund for these purposes.

Starting from January 1 of this year, the amount of long-term disability and survivors payments has been increased by 7% once again by the decision of the Government of Kazakhstan. Recalculation is carried out by the existing information systems in automatic mode, that is, citizens do not need to provide any additional documents, the system will do everything by itself.

Another unemplopyment social payment from the fund is assigned to the participant of the system from the date of registration as an unemployed person and is paid up to 6 months. A person lost his job, registered at the employment center as unemployed – and from that day on, we have been paying social payment for job loss for six months. The amount of such payment is 0.45 of the previous salary. For example, if the salary was 100 thousand tenge, then 45 thousand tenge will be paid while he is looking for a job for six months.

- How much have the fund's services been modernized at the moment?

- Currently, conditions are being created in our country for services "without leaving home" on the principle of "one window". For example, you can apply for disability payments through a medical and social examination immediately upon determining disability, and for job loss payments when registering as unemployed at a career center or through the Electronic Labor Exchange portal enbek.kz . If you already have registration at the career center, then the egov e-Government portal is available for contacting.kz - this portal is a platform for applying for any of the social payments, provided that the necessary information about the service recipient is available in the information systems.

The development of electronic services is supported by second-tier banks, and in the mobile applications of some of them, you can apply to the fund for child care and job loss payments.

With the introduction of the Digital Family Card, the appointment of payments in a proactive form has become relevant, it is enough only the applicant's consent in order to have the right to receive payments, while the dialogue between the service provider and the service recipient takes place via SMS messages by mobile phone number. In 2023, in our region, about 60% of social payments from the fund are assigned based on requests through electronic sources, while the period for reviewing electronic services has been reduced from 8 to 4 working days.

For the convenience of citizens, there are all opportunities to receive information about received social contributions through the egov e-government portal.kz or through mobile applications of second-tier banks online, as well as through branches of the State Corporation "Government for Citizens" (PSC) or branches of the fund.

20.03.2024