Acting head of the Russian Pension Fund Board Sergei Chirkov has reported first results of the merger between the Pension Fund and the Social Insurance Fund (SIF) and the tasks to be addressed by the Social Fund of Russia next year at a strategic meeting in Moscow on November 9.
He focused on the priorities of pension and social support in his speech to PFR and SIF representatives who came to the meeting from various regions of Russia.
“Social funds always have numerous important tasks, but now they are more ambitious than ever,” Sergei Chirkov said. “The merger is a logical, natural continuation of the processes that have been developing in the social sphere for years. Clearly, their main goal is better quality of public services. We have done a lot on our way to merger, but there are still some tasks that need to be fulfilled,” he said.
A number of processes preparing the funds’ merger are either completed or are about to be finalized.
Heads of PFR and SIF divisions reported results of the work on the funds’ merger at the regional level during the meeting. The joint fund will be fully staffed by the end of the year. Fund specialists have been trained for two months to develop joint competences and perform SFR functions. The preparation of staffing tables for the central office and regional offices has been completed.
Joint client offices are already on a trial run in several regions, and visitors can assess the convenience of receiving services from both funds. New client services will enable Russians to seek several services from one office in a faster and more convenient manner.
Certain services of the fund are provided proactively under the Social Treasury project. Information is provided about the size of a future pension, as well as measures of social support available to the parents of a newborn, a person recognized as disabled, and a person who achieves the retirement age. Maternity capital, monthly benefit, disability pension, old-age pension, and federal social pension supplement are also assigned on the proactive basis. The use of these mechanisms simplifies the interaction between the citizen and the state, and this format will be extended into other services in the future.
Besides the completed processes, the funds need to fulfill some other tasks before the New Year or in 2023.
An important task is the migration of over 50 new services of the fund to the unified public services portal using the constructor. They will add to the PFR and SIF services already available on the portal.
It is also planned to raise pensions, benefits of families with children, and other social benefits. Preparations are being made to pay a single benefit to low-income families with children and pregnant women from January 1, 2023.
The fund will also organize the submission of work record reports from policyholders. A unified form of reports will be introduced for policyholders in 2023, which will significantly facilitate the procedure. Before this year ends, PFR and SIF need to work out their interaction while receiving, processing and keeping record of information from employers.
In conclusion, Sergei Chirkov thanked the collective of the funds for their work and asked them to do everything they can to provide SFR services in a fast and quality fashion next year.