Consistent with the order of the Russian Labor and Social Protection Ministry No. 327n dated June 11, 2020, the assignment of the monthly social benefit to disabled persons and disabled children became proactive on July 28, 2020. There is no need for filing an application, as territorial bodies of the Russian Pension Fund assign the benefit by themselves.
Now the benefit is assigned by the Pension Fund on the basis of the Federal Register of Disabled Persons. The monthly benefit is approved on the day a person, including a child, is recognized as disabled and is assigned within 10 days since the disability information is entered into the register. The notice of the assignment of the monthly benefit is received by the person’s account on the Public Services Portal, email address (if available) or as an SMS text message.
The cancelation of the monthly benefit application process has become the next step towards liberalization of the assignment of pensions and benefits to disabled persons. The Federal Register of Disabled Persons is the sole operator of information provided by medical social examination bureaus, off-budget funds, federal ministries and agencies, and regional and municipal authorities.
Information from the Federal Register of Disabled Persons is used for remote assignment of disability pensions. All a disabled person needs to do is file an online application with the PFR, and the rest of information will be obtained by the PFR from the register. Last year, the Pension Fund assigned 1.1 million benefits on the basis of information from the Federal Register of Disabled persons. Most of the assigned payments (723,000) were monthly benefits, as well as insurance and state disability pensions (388,500).
The disability attestation procedure is also remote nowadays, it is based exclusively on documents from medical institutions, and a disabled person does not need to visit a medical social examination bureau. The temporary procedure was endorsed for the period from March 1 till October 1, 2020 due to the epidemiological situation.
Once the disability information is entered into the Federal Register of Disabled Persons, a PFR territorial body assigns a monthly benefit and a disability pension by itself, and a disabled person only needs to choose the pension delivery method via one’s account on the Public Services Portal or the PFR website. If any PFR payments were assigned to the person earlier, there is no need to apply for the delivery method.
The Pension Fund has been taking measures since April to remotely assign pensions and allowances, to assist citizens’ enquiries for information, and to proactively extend and update entitlements. The Pension Fund will continue the automatic assignment of certain types of benefits.