What categories of and how unemployed people will benefit from the one-time assistance package?

The Action Plan[1] of the Cabinet of Ministers on the implementation of Paragraph 10.2 of Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan No. 1950 dated March 19, 2020, “On a number of measures to reduce the negative impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and, consequently, sharp fluctuations in world energy and stock markets on the economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, macroeconomic stability, employment issues, and business entities in the country” envisages measures for the employment and social protection of the unemployed and dismissed persons. In this context, I wrote last time about the payment of a lump sum in the amount of the subsistence minimum (190 AZN) to persons registered as unemployed in the State Employment Service. According to the Action Plan, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population (MLSPP) has been instructed to provide a lump sum payment in the amount of the subsistence minimum (190 AZN). 70 million AZN has been allocated from the state budget for this event, which will be held in April-May 2020.

On April 7, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the “Terms and rules for the payment of a lump sum to persons registered as unemployed due to the introduction of a special quarantine regime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.”[2] According to the rules, one-time payments are not given to unemployed people who receive the following payments from government agencies:

• members of families receiving targeted state social assistance (TSSA);
• labor pensioners;
• recipients of monthly benefits;
• recipients of monthly stipends;
• persons who have been provided with a property under the self-employment program;
• recipients of unemployment insurance benefits;
• recipients of vocational training scholarships;
• persons who received agricultural subsidies (ACS) in 2020;
• persons whose spouses are entrepreneurs (with active TIN) or have active employment contract notices in the “Employment contract notification” subsystem of the Centralized electronic information system of the Ministry;
• persons whose spouses receive TSSA or ACS.

Thus, according to the rules approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, the lump sum payment is assigned and paid to persons registered as unemployed in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On Employment" and not belonging to the above categories. These include:

• Persons registered as unemployed in the “Employment” subsystem (ESS) as of April 1, 2020;
• Persons registered as unemployed at the ESS during the special quarantine regime in connection with the pandemic.

According to the rules, the lump sum is determined in electronic form by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

According to the rules, those who have so far been unemployed will not receive a lump sum benefit from unemployment insurance and vocational training scholarships, as well as if they fall into the above categories; for instance, if they receive TSSA or benefits or stipends, as well as are the participants of the self-employment programs, if they benefit from the subsidy allocated to agriculture, they will also be removed from the list of those eligible for one-time assistance.

Based on the data of the State Statistical Committee[3], I would like to note that as of March 1, 2020, according to preliminary data, the number of the economically active population was 5,188.4 thousand people, of which 4,936.8 thousand people were employed. As of February 1 this year, the number of employees was 1,641.0 thousand people, including 911.9 thousand people in the public sector and 729.1 thousand people in the private sector. As of March 1, 2020, the number of unemployed people registered with employment services was only 90,779 in the country, of which 501 people are paid unemployment insurance.

If a person, who had not yet lost his/her job status, lost his/her job due to the pandemic, he/she can apply for this status on the “e-social”[4] portal using the service "Registration of citizens as job seekers and unemployed, temporary deregistration, and temporary cancellation of registration".[5] In this case, if it is not possible to offer a suitable job to the person by the ESS, a decision is made immediately to grant the status of unemployed, and the ESS checks whether the unemployed person belongs to the above-mentioned persons. If the inspection reveals that the unemployed person belongs to the above-mentioned person, the ESS refuses to pay a lump sum in electronic form, sends an SMS to the unemployed person with a reason for refusal, and a reasoned notification is placed in his e-office.

If, as a result of the inspection, it is determined that the unemployed person does not belong to the above-mentioned person, the ESS decides on the appointment of a lump sum payment. The lump sum payment is made by bank or post office and a mobile message is sent to the person. The lump sum payment is made monthly during the special quarantine regime in connection with the pandemic. The lump sum payment for the next month is made 30 (thirty) days after the previous payment after the re-inspection.

An analysis of these rules shows that the restrictions on the payment of a lump sum in the amount of the subsistence minimum (190 AZN) to persons registered as unemployed have been deliberately increased. The main purpose of imposing multiple restrictions is to prevent access to allocated funds. In fact, a lump sum payment of the subsistence level should be given to all unemployed. However, applying a lump sum payment of 70 million AZN to 200,000 people in the Action Plan of the Cabinet of Ministers the implementation of Paragraph 10.2 of Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan No. 1950 dated March 19, 2020, ultimately conditioned the selection among the unemployed. Because, if these funds were paid to all the unemployed, then the allocated amount would not be enough. According to the assessment of independent experts, only 1,641,000 of the 5,188,400 economically active population are hired employees. If we take into account that entrepreneurs, those who own land suitable for agriculture, members of family farms belong to employed people according to Article 4.1.3 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On Employment”[6] and their number is 1,750,000 people, so it turns out that the remaining 1,797,400 people are either unemployed or secretly employed. If we take into account that those who are secretly employed are also unemployed and include them in the list of job seekers, then the actual unemployment rate in Azerbaijan is many times higher than the number of unemployed provided for a lump sum payment.

At the same time, people who have recently lost their jobs due to the pandemic and are still unemployed have difficulty using the “e-social” portal to obtain this status. Due to the large number of people facing this problem, the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, Sahil Babayev, commented on the issue at a press conference at the DOST Center[7]: “Although the widest servers have been created, they also have a limit. They do not have to apply today. Citizens registered as unemployed should not hurry, payments will be made during the quarantine period.” At the same time, in order to solve the problem of using the “e-social” portal, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population has announced the schedule[8] of e-application days in cities and regions of the country for consideration of the right to receive a lump sum payment, taking into account a large number of applications for registration of unemployed. According to this schedule, online applications will be accepted on different days from different regions divided into 4 groups and from April 12, the restriction on regions will be removed.

As can be seen, the inadequate setup of electronic servers and online application platforms for mass applications exacerbates existing problems. It weakens the work of e-government in the country and reduces the quality of Internet services.

[1] https://cabmin.gov.az/az/document/4341/

[2] https://cabmin.gov.az/az/document/4371/

[3] https://www.stat.gov.az/news/macroeconomy.php?page=1

[4] https://e-sosial.az/#/index

[5] http://www.sosial.gov.az/post/3318

[6] http://www.e-qanun.az/framework/39846

[7] https://musavat.com/mobile/news/muracietlerin-60-faizi-haqqi-olmayanlar-idi-sahil-babayev_691853.html

[8] https://report.az/sosial-mudafie/i-ssiz-sexslerin-qeydiyyata-alinmalari-ucun-elektron-qaydada-muraciet-gunleri-aciqlanib/