The number of Russians whose pensions are assigned online has been on the rise: a total of 1.036 million Russians had their pensions assigned via the personal account section on the Russian Pension Fund’s website in the first nine months of 2017. It was 263,000 persons more than in the entire year 2016. More than 1.7 million persons, or 607,000 more than in the entire year 2016, chose the pension delivery method online in the reporting period.
The assignment of a pension and the choice of a pension delivery method are two online services, which have been demonstrating the highest growth of popularity for several years. The number of persons who had their pensions assigned on the PFR website was 11 times higher in 2016 than in 2015, while the number of those who chose the pension delivery method online increased 14 times.
In some regions, the percentage of citizens who applied for the assignment of a pension or a change of the pension delivery method online exceeds 90%: these include the Republic of Karelia (95.7%), the Republic of Buryatia (94.8%), the Republic of Adygeya (93.2%), the Tambov region (93,1%), and the Volgograd region (93%).
The year is not over yet, but the scope of use of the majority of key PFR online services has already surpassed the 2016 levels. The demand for some services has doubled or even tripled since 2016. Applications for the issue of maternity capital certificates, the assignment of monthly social benefits, and the certification of the size of a pension and social benefits have demonstrated a double growth, while online requests for the use of maternity capital funds and payment of pension savings have tripled in number.
On the whole, the number of citizens who used services available in the personal account section on the Pension Fund website stood at 5.5 million in the first nine months of 2017.
Most services provided by the Pension Fund are now available online and can be accessed from home. All services offered by the Pension Fund in the electronic format can be found in the single portal on the PFR website, es.pfrf.ru. Their use requires registration with the unified state services’ portal, gosuslugi.ru. There is no need for additional registration with the PFR website.
Ten new services are due to become available in the personal account section before the end of this year. Importantly, PFR online services can be accessed not only on the Pension Fund website and the state services’ portal, but also in the mobile application for smart phones presented by the PFR in spring of this year.