The Social Fund of Russia introduced electronic retiree's certificates. This is the next step in an ambitious program to digitalize the social sector, designed to make receiving benefits and services as fast and easy as possible. The new electronic certificate with a QR code has become a full-fledged alternative to plastic cards and is available from a retiree's personal account on the Gosuslugi Portal.
The most convenient feature of the innovation is that retirees do not need to submit any applications to obtain it. For those who are already retired, the QR code will appear on their Gosuslugi account automatically. Those who are retiring will receive their QR codes automatically within 10 days after their pension is assigned.
"Electronic retiree's certificates have become an alternative to the usual plastic cards," explained Sergey Chirkov, Chairman of the Social Fund of Russia. "Those who have QR code do not need to carry their certificates on them any longer. A retiree can confirm their status and benefits at any moment, by accessing the Gosuslugi Portal from their mobile phone. You cannot lose your QR code, unlike a traditional certificate."
Head of the Social Fund also noted that this innovation is part of the Fund's systemic work to create unified digital profiles for benefit recipients.
"We are introducing QR codes as digital certificates that make it possible to confirm your eligibility for benefits and services with various institutions," emphasized Sergey Chirkov. "We already have a successfully operating unified registry of large families, with data on more than 2.8 million families. This allows not only for their status to be factored in when assigning benefits with no confirmations needed, but also for digital certificates to be issued via the Gosuslugi Portal."
Plastic certificates issued earlier remain valid and do not need to be replaced. Those who do not wish to use a QR code can, as before, obtain a plastic retiree certificate at a Social Fund client office or a Multifunctional Center.