In mid-October, the city of Akkol, Akmola region, hosted a demonstration of a new direction of the Social Wallet – granting state support to recipients of targeted social assistance in the form of food vouchers for socially significant food products (SSFP).
In a context of limited resources and the need to improve the efficiency of budget funds use, the state is actively developing new approaches to the social assistance delivery. The Social Wallet became one of such solutions. How does it work?
Scheme for the implementation of vouchers for socially significant food products (SSFP)
Scheme for the implementation of vouchers for socially significant food products (SSFP)
- The Akimats (state authorities) accept applications for the project participation from Social Entrepreneurship Corporations (SECs), as well as transfer data about the recipients of Targeted Social Assistance (TSA) to the Social Wallet (SW).
- Based on these data, the SW system automatically generates food vouchers for the citizens.
- In turn, the SECs provide preferential loans to trading facilities so that they can offer goods at below-market prices to recipients of state aid. Preferential loans shall be granted on the terms of repayment, payment and urgency.
- TSA recipients use vouchers in stores to purchase socially significant food products at reduced prices.
- The Social Wallet provides weekly statistics and reporting to the Akimats and state authorities on used vouchers, thus ensuring the transparency of the process.
What will change with the introduction of the Social Wallet?
The developer of the Social Wallet – the Kazakhstani company BTS Digital – believes that the new direction of the project in the form of food vouchers will solve a number of sensitive issues:
The developer of the Social Wallet – the Kazakhstani company BTS Digital – believes that the new direction of the project in the form of food vouchers will solve a number of sensitive issues:
- goods purchased by the SECs will be offered at below-market prices, which will significantly give relieve to socially vulnerable citizens.
- the efficiency of state support distribution will increase due to a transparent system of tracking the provided assistance and full digital reporting.
- the direct support will be provided exclusively to needy categories of citizens, which will minimize the risk of receiving assistance by well-off segments of the population.
- currently, due to low prices for socially important goods, they are quickly “swept off” the shelves and create a shortage. The introduction of vouchers will help to allocate resources more accurately and prevent mass buying of goods at reduced prices.
- maintaining natural conditions of price formation will ensure the market stabilization and exclude artificial overpricing of socially significant goods.
- at the same time, the new direction of the Social Wallet will not require an increase in expenditures from the state budget, as the system will work on the basis of already existing funding mechanisms.
Let's remind you how the Social Wallet works. It is a digital platform that allows citizens to manage non-monetary types of state aid in one place using a mobile application. The main functions of the system are:
To summarize, it should be noted that the implementation of vouchers for socially significant food products through the Social Wallet will create a reliable and transparent system of support, which is focused on the most vulnerable groups in society. This will help the state to distribute its resources more accurately without reducing the level of social protection of the population.
- Using the IIN and remote identification for registration.
- Real-time visualization of all support measures provided to the citizen.
- Complete analytics on the use of state aid by every citizen.
- Automatic proactive crediting of social assistance and other government payments based on IIN data.
- Analytics on the use of social assistance funds to improve per capita financing.
To summarize, it should be noted that the implementation of vouchers for socially significant food products through the Social Wallet will create a reliable and transparent system of support, which is focused on the most vulnerable groups in society. This will help the state to distribute its resources more accurately without reducing the level of social protection of the population.