Unemployment Insurance Fund does not fulfill forecast obligations

Baku/04.08.21/Turan: In 2019, the income of the Unemployment Insurance Fund amounted to 12.6 million manat, and unemployment insurance payments amounted to 2 million 268 thousand manat, the conclusion of the Accounts Chamber on the bill "On the budget of the Unemployment Insurance Fund for 2021".

Although in 2020 the projected revenues of the fund increased to 15.1 million, insurance payments amounted to only 1.65 million. Although it was supposed to spend 10 million manat for these purposes.

Why are insurance payments for unemployment in Azerbaijan used less than the forecast?

According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, last year in connection with the amendments to the law "On insurance against unemployment", the rules for issuing insurance payments for unemployment were simplified and the sum insured was increased. According to the new rules, along with persons dismissed as a result of the liquidation of the employer and layoff, the right to receive unemployment insurance benefits can also be obtained by persons who become unemployed as a result of the termination of a fixed-term employment contract. This innovation is aimed at strengthening social protection of the unemployed and expanding the coverage of unemployment insurance payments."

The department noted that on the basis of the new rules applied, the State Employment Agency for 6 months of 2021 appointed an unemployment insurance benefit for 1,570 people, which is 3.1 times more than in the same period last year.

It was emphasized that in order to pay unemployment insurance benefits, you must first register in the "employment" subsystem or contact the appropriate employment center. “If it is impossible to find a suitable job for a person, he is assigned the status of unemployed, and he confirms the application posted in the system after registering as unemployed. The person's appeal is considered within 10 days with a decision on the appointment or refusal to pay insurance compensation, information about this is posted in his electronic account and a notification is sent to the specified mobile phone number. "

Economist Natig Jafarli told “Radio Azadlig” that in Azerbaijan there is a very rough practice of implementing very good ideas in the world. “In many countries, unemployment insurance funds are one of the precautions. The basic philosophy of these funds is that working people pay a certain amount to this Fund. These people insure themselves so that tomorrow, when they become unemployed, this fund will play an important role in solving their problems related to unemployment and help cover their costs until they find a job.”

According to the expert, the system was never built in Azerbaijan. “One of the main reasons is that there is a rough practice of registering statistics on unemployment in Azerbaijan. They put a person down until he proves that he is unemployed, so many people do not apply for benefits at all. "

Jafarli noted that many people are unaware of the existence of the unemployment insurance fund. “If the government bodies wanted to provide more information about the activities of this fund, they would have filmed social videos and trained people. Apparently, the state itself is interested in people not knowing about it. "

In his opinion, insurance premiums related to unemployment should not be a tax burden. “But the overwhelming majority of our population is dissatisfied, because this amount is deducted from the monthly income of citizens, which they see as an additional tax burden. The society does not see the real activity of this fund to solve the problems of citizens”.

The economist noted that the solutions to this problem are very simple. “First of all, it is necessary to ensure that unemployment registrations comply with normal international standards. The procedure must become electronic. "

He believes that the complexity of registration due to unemployment has political reasons as well. “If the correct statistical registration of unemployment is carried out in Azerbaijan, it will become clear that it is 2 times higher than the current official figures. It also means that there are hundreds of thousands of unemployed, which may indicate a failure of the socio-economic policy of his government.”- 0 -