Digital social insurance services cut benefit application processing times by up to 70%

Nicosia, Cyprus. Applications for key social insurance benefits are being processed up to 70 per cent faster following the introduction of new digital services, Deputy Research Minister Nicodimos Damianou said on Tuesday. The rollout forms part of the government’s wider digital transformation programme and will be expanded to support pension reform.

Online benefit applications

The digital services cover paternity, maternity, childbirth, parental leave and funeral allowances. A new insured profile also provides members of the public with a single access point for their applications and records.

Applications for disability pension, widow’s pension, disability allowance and benefits for people with thalassaemia can also now be submitted online.

Service overhaul

Labour and Social Insurance Minister Marinos Mousiouttas described digital transformation as an investment for the coming decades, citing fewer documents, less travel, faster application processing and improved service for citizens.

He said the success of a reform should be measured by the extent to which it makes life easier for those using it. Social security, he added, is one of the welfare state’s most important pillars, and the overhaul aimed to redesign services with citizens at the centre.

Expansion of digital services

Mousiouttas said paternity, maternity and childbirth benefits had been progressively brought online over the past two years. Parental leave and funeral allowances, which had not previously been available electronically, were added most recently.

Damianou said the system was central to the government’s digital transformation effort and described the programme as the largest and most extensive digital transformation implemented by the state.

He also referred to the electronic payment of social insurance contributions through the CY Login identification system, which continues to gain users each month.