Meine-Rehabilitation.de is a new web portal set up by the German Federal Pension Insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund – DRV Bund) to help people find a quality-assured rehabilitation centre. For each centre, users can see the results of the quality assurance audits carried out by the DRV Bund. The new online service allows the DRV Bund to fulfil its legal obligation to publicly report quality assurance results for rehabilitation centres and support insured persons in exercising their right to choose a rehabilitation provider.

Social security organizations are currently poorly rated online on search engines like Google or on employer assessment platforms. This is the case in many countries.

These poor ratings give the image of a degraded public service and can have repercussions on the recruitment process for new employees.

The aim of this experimental project, led by URSSAF Languedoc-Roussillon in France, is to set up a system to improve the e-reputation of social security organizations. It is based on a review management system and monitoring.

The war situation in Ukraine puts millions of citizens living in that country at serious risk, resulting in the abandonment of a considerable number of people, seeking refuge in countries willing to welcome them.

It is important that there are credible and fast reception and integration mechanisms that allow our country's humanitarian response capacity to be more consistent by providing a set of job opportunities existing in Portugal, facilitating a wider integration of Ukrainian citizens and their families.

The funeral grant of civil servant old-age or invalidity pensioner who dies while receiving a pension is paid, upon request, primarily to his/her spouse. If there is no spouse, to his/her children. If there is no spouse and children, to his/her parents. If there is no parents, to his/her siblings. If there are no siblings, to those who certify that they have incurred expenses up to the amount of the invoice, not exceeding the amount of funeral grant to be made.

In order to meet the needs of families with disabled children aged 3–17 who wish to use mainstream optional and extracurricular childcare facilities, the Family Branch in France has set up ad hoc funding support. This support offsets the extra costs incurred by different facilities (such as disability training/awareness-raising for activity teams, additional staff, adapting and purchasing equipment, preparation, and coordination time, etc.).

The “Complemento Solidário para Idosos” (CSI) is a social assistance programme in Portugal designed to provide financial support to elderly individuals who are in a situation of economic vulnerability. The programme offers a financial supplement to the pension with the goal to help low-income elderly citizens meet their basic needs and improve their quality of life.

In the face of demographic transition, finding ways to offer citizens greater transparency about personal retirement planning and improve their level of knowledge about retirement planning has been a big topic of discussion for more than 20 years.

The Social Security Institution (Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu – SGK) of Türkiye pays pensions to approximately 16 million people every month. There are different types of insurance within the scope of the current law in our country. Payments to retirees are made on different days of the month (1st group on 17-26 of each month, 2nd group on 26-28 of each month, 3rd group on 1-5 of each month). Inappropriate payments frequently occur due to death-related reasons. The aim of this project is to reduce inappropriate payments and increase efficiency in payments.

In 2020, the Government of Azerbaijan approved a regulation for the Individual Rehabilitation Programme (IRP) for persons with disabilities. The individual programme includes a set of measures related to the medical, vocational, psychological-pedagogical rehabilitation and the development of social skills of persons with disabilities.

To help disabled people to be more independent, the way the Disabled Adult Allowance (Allocation aux adultes handicapés – AAH) is calculated was changed on 1 October 2023. We produced a video to offer support to those who receive the allowance. The communication methods used have been adapted to the target audience; as some recipients have hearing impairments, this video has been dubbed in French sign language (langue des signes française – LSF).

Until recently, the German Federal Pension Insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund – DRV Bund) had several different customer service departments, each responsible for a specific area. There were two major issues associated with this model. Firstly, it was difficult to handle customer service queries in a consistent, transparent and satisfactory manner. Secondly, to avoid extra work for staff due to not standardized processes.

The National Office of Social Insurance (NOSI) of the Republic of Moldova is an innovative and modern authority, which enjoys high level of public trust and guarantees quality public services in the event of certain social risks, the application of technologies based on the interoperability of systems is one of the key elements for the development and provision of services to beneficiaries.

We were predicting that a large number of persons who had fled the Russian aggression in Ukraine to Finland and are under temporary protection would become customers of the Social Insurance Institution (Kansaneläkelaitos – Kela) after residing in the country for one year and thus getting broader entitlement to Kela benefits. The risk was that our customer service would get strained by many new customers seeking assistance and that our benefits processing would get overloaded with a large number of new applications under a relatively short period.

The German Federal Pension Insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund – DRV Bund) has created an online German Pension Portal so users can access key administrative services (e.g., pensions, rehabilitation, insurance, and subsidized private pension plans) on any digital device. Users can log in and use the online services anywhere, at any time. Using a smartphone, tablet or computer, citizens can quickly, easily and securely file applications and find information on topics including pensions, electronic communication services and more.

As part of the agreement on objectives and management signed with the State for the period 2023–2027 (COG), the French National Family Allowances Fund (Caisse nationale des allocations familiales – CNAF) wishes to bolster its innovations and progress in the area of community listening. The decision was therefore made to set up a “LabParentalité” (parenting lab) based on an initiative launched in the French Department of Isère.

The challenge addressed by the Federal Pensions Service (Service fédéral des Pensions – SFP) and its partners was the outdated pension application tool, prompting the integration of an online pension demand system into mypension.be, Belgium’s official online pension portal.

From November 2022 to April 2023, the Social Insurance Bank (Sociale Verzekeringsbank – SVB) of the Netherlands conducted a pilot programme to address the underutilization of the AIO supplement among eligible households. This initiative aligned with the SVB’s crucial mission of providing citizens with social security.

A family leave reform was introduced in Finland in 2022. The aims of the reform included a more even distribution of family leave and childcare responsibilities between parents and better equality on the labour market. In support of these aims, we created an easy-to-use online calculator that parents can use to get an idea of the impact that sharing the family leave between parents is likely to have on the family’s income. Sharing the entitlement to family leave can often prove financially worthwhile.

Spain’s General Treasury of the Social Security (Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social – TGSS) remains committed to improving citizen services. It has therefore defined a new service model based on user experiences and the implementation of new technologies. Creating this model required an in-depth analysis of the service provided to citizens. We needed to establish a system to measure how often each channel is used, which are the most common requests, and assess which groups interact with the TGSS.

The DG Universal Health Insurance (DG UHI) established under the Social Security Institution (Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu – SGK) of Türkiye develops policies and regulates the universal health insurance sector, which concerns almost the entire Turkish population.

Implementation of a 360º Vision in direct social security, which allows a single view of all relationship interactions and all individual processes of people and companies with social security.

This new relationship model streamlines and integrates, on a single platform, the various channels of interaction between citizens and companies with social security.

The Social Insurance Administration (Tryggingastofnun ríkisins –TR) Client Ombudsman of Iceland is a new position, which started at the end of 2022. The main role of the Client Ombudsman is to guide customers in the handling of cases at TR and to assist those who do not feel that they have received substantial consideration or solutions in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations.

Due to the armed conflict in Ukraine, the Social Insurance Institution (Zaklad Ubezpieczen Spolecznych ‒ ZUS) of Poland has been obliged to provide financial support to refugees from Ukraine. This support is provided within the framework of government programmes: Good Start 300+; Family 500+; Family Care Capital; Co-financing of Nursery Fees.

The expected large number of benefit claims, the heavy burden of social responsibility, as well as the tight timetable to prepare for the processing of new claims, forced ZUS to take quick and efficient measures.

Until June 2023, it has only been possible to access in Iceland the Disability Card on the My pages of the Social Security Administration (Tryggingastofnun ríkisins – TR) and order a plastic card on TR’s website, but from June the card has also been accessible digitally on Ísland.is.

Lack of protection leaves workers vulnerable to the vagaries of the labour market, undermines their rights and dignity, exacerbates poverty and inequality, and jeopardizes the implicit social contract of modern societies (ISO, 2019). As the world of work is evolving, shaped by global trends such as digitalization, automation and globalization, as well as socio-demographic changes, social protection systems need to adapt to changing contexts and demands (ISO, 2017).

Since 2022, medical reports for temporary disability at work, maternity, childcare, accidents at work and occupational diseases that are paid by social insurance, are no longer received over papers but are delivered through the electronic system E-Reports (e-RM), which interacts with the e-Albania government portal, offering a fast and secure way to exchange information.

The URSSAF National Fund of France, in partnership with the health, family and retirement branches, organizes the detection of self-employed workers in fragile situations. In fact, the analysis of individual situations shows that the identification of vulnerability in one particular area can lead to the identification of other weaknesses or needs, which require an overall approach on a medical, economic and social level.

The Greek social security institutions that were integrated into the Electronic National Social Security Fund (e-EFKA), bequeathed it, among other problems, with a plethora of issues related to “pending pensions”.

More specifically, the time required to examine the cases was too long, thus a large number of pending cases had been accumulated, and citizens’ communication with the competent services was quite difficult, while the Administration of e-EFKA faced difficulties in gathering the data for the optimum use of available resources.

Having easy access to accurate and up-to-date information on social security is important to all levels of government as well as the private sector and the media. The Social Insurance Institution (Kansaneläkelaitos) – Kela, as a key institution on social security in Finland, produces such information and wants to maximize its usability for interested parties. To achieve this strategic goal, a new web service, Kela’s Info Tray, was launched in September 2022.

The main role of the Innovative Digital Factory (Fabrique Digitale Innovante – FDI) is to lead digital processes within the Central Fund of Social Agricultural Mutual Benefit Societies (Caisse centrale de la mutualité sociale agricole – CCMSA) network in France. It intervenes after the initial design processes or as soon as a need is identified relating to a particular area (health, family, retirement, corporate, etc.).

The State Social Insurance Agency (SSIA) of Latvia has introduced a new e-service “SSIA information and services” (hereinafter dashboard) in August 2022, which is available on the unified state and local government service portal www.latvija.gov.lv.

Quick Pension Guide (Snabbkoll på din pension) is a digital service on the Swedish Pensions Agency’s website that was launched in June 2022 to support individuals in the accumulation phase (people aged 26–54) to quickly and easily learn more about the old-age pension and make informed choices based on their situation.

85 percent of individuals who have completed the guide state that they will act based on the information they received, either implement a change or search for more information.

Ireland’s Budget 2022 included an announcement that those suffering from alopecia and cancer could avail of a 500 euros (EUR) grant towards the cost of a hair replacement product subject to meeting certain Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) criteria. Other changes to treatment benefit qualification were also announced with an implementation date of May 2022.

Crèches are the preferred form of childcare for young parents in France, but there is currently a shortage of places for young children, with a shortfall of around 200,000.

In the interaction with citizens, the National Office of Social Insurance (NOSI) of the Republic of Moldova, aiming to provide qualitative, innovative and modern public services, has implemented the governmental electronic payment service (MPay) – an efficient, reliable and modern software solution for the distribution of social benefit payments.

The MPay government e-payment service is used as a unique mechanism for the payment of social benefits and allows citizens to receive payments by any legally available payment method.

The Social Marine Institute (Instituto Social de la Marina – ISM) is the body that manages the Special Regime for Sea Workers (Régimen Especial de Trabajadores del Mar – REM) in the Federation of Administrative Bodies of Spanish Social Security (Federación de Entidades Gestoras de la Administración de la Seguridad Social Española – FEGASSE). It aims to meet the needs and expectations of the workers it protects. For this reason, efforts have been made to modernize and adapt its services to new technologies.

The DOST-Index of the Agency for Sustainable and Operational Social Provision (DOST) of Azerbaijan is a comprehensive tool for assessing and benchmarking social services delivery performance across different factors by analyzing collected information from several sources and drawing out insights using time-tested analytic methods. Being an evaluation system, the DOST-Index is a model aimed at analyzing activities of back offices at the macro level and DOST centres at the micro level.

With the e-prescription in the Austrian Federation of Social Insurances (Dachverband der Österreichischen Sozialversicherungsträger – DSV), health insurance prescriptions for all insured persons are issued, filled and billed electronically. Because all the necessary information is available electronically in the pharmacy, paper is no longer necessary. This reduces the administrative workload for everyone involved.

By virtue of the amended legislation and new legislation enacted, the Social Insurance Institution (Zaklad Ubezpieczen Spolecznych ‒ ZUS) has been obliged to handle a number of programmes to support families. These are the government programmes: Good Start 300+; Family 500+; Family Care Capital; Co-financing of Nursery Fees.

The huge, multi-million number of benefit claims, the heavy burden of social responsibility, as well as the tight timetable to prepare for the processing of new claims, forced ZUS to take quick and efficient measures.

The good practice “Instant Pension” is part of the information system supporting the pensions business, being a solution that aims to reduce the average time it takes to grant requests for old-age pensions, presented by citizens to Portuguese social security. This solution automatically approves pension requests, validating access conditions and carrying out a provisional calculation of the old-age pension, based on the information available in the social security information system.

A Knowledge management system is a system designed to facilitate the sharing and updating of knowledge, and to disseminate knowledge that may be unknown or dispersed throughout the organization.

Through the Essentiels portals, the Central Fund of Social Agricultural Mutual Benefit Societies (Caisse centrale de la mutualité sociale agricole – CCMSA) of France has adopted a system which focuses on the links between individual and collective skills, the application of legislation and the coordination of resulting actions.

Creating “user pathways” is central to strengthening access to rights for Family Branch users. It allows us to provide comprehensive support at specific key moments in users’ lives, such as having children and during a separation.

Technical debt – the extra work and costs involved in correcting poorly designed or suboptimal source code – is an inevitable part of any Information Technology (IT) project.

Used sparingly, it is a way of delivering added value to clients more quickly. However, allowing technical debt to get out of control and ignoring the issues involved are the main causes of both short- and long-term failures of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) projects.

The needs of end users are at long last being prioritized in digital projects. Those of intermediate users, on the other hand, are all too often neglected. Through its dedicated team of service designers, the Belgian National Employment Office (Office national de l’emploi – ONEM) is gradually remodelling the interfaces of the tools used by its employees. And since a public service can only be complete if internal applications deliver the same level of user experience as end-user applications, ONEM decided to involve employees from the very beginning of the design process.

The poorest citizens are mostly single recipients of old-age and invalidity pensions. The government wants to reduce their risk of poverty. The State Social Insurance Fund Board of the Republic of Lithuania under the Ministry of Social Security and Labour (Sodra) wants to help in particular those who are often not even aware that they are entitled to the new benefit, or those who are unable to come to claim and unable to use the electronic claim form.

The Social services portal (the Portal) was developed as part of the implementation of the National of the State Social Insurance Fund (SSIF) of Kazakhstan plan to ensure the rights and improve the quality of life of disabled people.

The Portal is a part of the unified information system of the social and labor sphere and is an automated system that provides persons with disabilities with the opportunity to independently choose and purchase technical rehabilitation means (TMR) and services directly from suppliers.

Jobseekers are supposed to an submit Activity Report every month to show their job search activity. The report also helps the Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen ‒ PES) of Sweden, to provide jobseeker with the support he/she needs. Historically, many jobseekers have found it difficult to submit their Activity Report and otherwise comprehend what they were expected to do.

International students are eligible for universal health insurance if they request it within three months of their first registration with the school.

These requests, which were previously made by submitting three different documents to Turkish Social Security Institution (Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu – SGK) units, are now made online without any documents.

To enhance support, the Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen ‒ PES) of Sweden has developed a model to automatically estimate and purpose a search strategy on top of its traditional working streams, taking in consideration the job seeker’s educational background and vocational history to match them with the demands on the labour market. The model estimates a plan regarding the profession the jobseeker should primarily focus on, and the number of jobs one should preferably apply for optimizing his/her efforts for resolving his/her unemployment.

France’s Council for the Social Protection of Self-Employed Workers (Conseil de la protection sociale des travailleurs indépendants – CPSTI) was created in 2019.

The internal monitoring and control of its activities is entrusted to the general scheme social security bodies (the branches working on old age, sickness and social security collection) and is based on the organization, reference systems and control plans of each branch.

Since 2020, France’s Family Branch has been committed to simplifying and harmonizing its funding for children and young people. Comprehensive Territorial Agreements (Conventions territoriales globales – CTG) are being put in place across the board and, in parallel, it is rolling out a new funding model, the territorial bonus payment. Any facility located in an area covered by a CTG and supported by local authorities that have signed a CTG will receive this territorial bonus payment. The amount varies according to the wealth of the area and its population.

Following the re-establishment of the State Social Protection Fund of Azerbaijan (SSPF) as a legal entity under public law, the SSPF embarked on a transformative journey aimed at the incorporation of digital frameworks into its governance structure. This strategic initiative sought to optimize operational efficiency, enhance transparency and promote robust stakeholder engagement.

Bringing public services closer to citizens is a question of equality and social cohesion. In some areas, service users have the feeling they have been left behind. To combat this feeling, the State has joined forces with nine operators, including social security operators, to set up new local “France Services” reception centres.

This allows service users to receive the necessary support with their administrative procedures in one place, which can be reached in less than 30 minutes.

In 2019, the State Social Protection Fund of under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SSPF) introduced the unique artificial intelligence (AI) driven proactive assignment mechanism for the assignment of social benefits. This self-starting assignment system is a modern approach to delivering a social service that uses big data and technology to identify and reach out to eligible individuals and assign social benefits from a single center to families without them having to visit any institution.

Human rights and dignity stay at the top of the Agency for Sustainable and Operational Social Security (DOST) of Azerbaijan values. Considering its mission to provide the population with operative and smooth access to labor and social protection services, the Agency developed and implemented social innovations that increased citizen satisfaction. The position of the front office for citizens and mid office for ministerial and third-party organizations allows DOST the best coordination between citizens and service providers.

Analysis of citizens’ appeals revealed that the definite groups of people due to their growing number and specific physical and mental conditions, required different approaches.

The Agency for Sustainable and Operational Social Security (DOST) Volunteer Programme in Azerbaijan is a crucial part of the DOST Agency’s activities and applies a new innovative approach to Government to Citizen (G2C) communication. DOST volunteers act as an intermediary within the Agency and beyond it. The programme is focused on the day-to-day operations at the DOST centres, such as guiding citizens, assisting people with disabilities and older persons, conducting satisfaction surveys, and participating in CSR projects of the Agency.

The Proactive Disability Payments Mechanism of the Agency for Sustainable and Operational Social Security (DOST) of Azerbaijan simplifies the rights of disabled citizens by eliminating the need for explicit requests and paper-based documentation. The mechanism automatically identifies disabled citizens’ entitlement, verifies their information, and, if eligible, calculates and assigns the relevant social benefit or pension. This approach ensures a citizen-centric process, removing the requirement for citizens to initiate requests and simplifying access to vital services.

In 2020–2021, the State Social Protection Fund under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Azerbaijan (hereafter the Fund) initiated the optimization policy of the corporate governance framework pertaining to social security in Azerbaijan, which represents a pivotal undertaking aimed at refining and streamlining the operational dynamics of the social security apparatus. This initiative involves a comprehensive optimization strategy designed to elevate the efficiency, effectiveness and overall performance of the existing social security governance.

The key objectives of the portal are to provide comprehensive information about social protection entitlements and benefits, enable continuous monitoring of labour, employment, and social protection rights, and offer efficient and proactive services to users. To achieve these objectives, the “e-sosial” portal adopts a user-friendly approach based on the “one-stop shop” principle.

In Kazakhstan, as part of the digitalization of the social and labour sphere, an Electronic labour exchange (hereinafter ‒ ELE) has been created, which is a single digital employment platform that provides opportunities for job search and assistance in personnel selection. ELE creates modern conditions for the involvement of the population in productive employment, enables citizens to find a job, and employers to select the necessary personnel.

The eKRUS is an IT system of the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund (Kasa Rolniczego Ubezpieczenia Społecznego – KRUS) of Poland made available to the public via the Internet, dedicated to people insured with KRUS: farmers, farmers’ spouses and household members subject to social or health insurance, and members of their families reported by KRUS to health insurance.

Social Security Agreements Healthcare Entitlement Verification System (YUPASS as Turkish abbreviation) is a provision and activation system established for the insured persons of the countries with which Türkiye have a social security agreement to benefit from healthcare services during their stay or residence in our country. It works in integration with some of the online systems namely the National Identity Sharing System (KPS), Healthcare Reimbursement System Medical Ulak (MEDULA), Healthcare Entitlement Verification System (SPAS) and Financial Management Automation System (MOSIP).

According to Law no. 9154/2003 on archives in Albania, documents are all the acts created by public and non-public authorities, legal and physical entities, which are assessed as having national historical importance. The use of archives is an opportunity to utilize archival documents for personal needs or for research-scientific purposes.

The Employee Suggestion System developed by the Social Security Institution (Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu – SGK) in Turkïye is aimed to receive and effectively evaluate suggestions that will contribute to institutional development, based on the knowledge, skills and experience of the institutional staff. It is a system that includes receiving, evaluating, implementing and monitoring suggestions that increase the service efficiency, effectiveness and improvement of the personnel on matters related to the fields of activity of the institution.

In subparagraph (c) of the first paragraph of Article 58 of the Turkish Social Security Institution (Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu – SGK) Central Organization Working Regulation: “To collect, analyze and interpret information and data regarding the management of the Institution and the improvement of services and performance.”

In order to achieve the targets desired to be achieved in the provincial organization in line with its duty, it measures and reports the extent to which the determined performance targets have been achieved

The Institute for Social Insurance (Zavod za socijalno osiguranje – ZSO), as the liaison body of the Republic of Serbia, is responsible for the implementation of social security agreements, and in its activities directly and actively cooperates with institutions of the mandatory social insurance system in the country and coordinates the work of those institutions in the implementation of international agreements on social security (Republic Fund for Pension and Disability Insurance, Republic Health Insurance Fund, Social Insurance Fund for Military Personnel and the National Employ