Information on activities of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the field of employment and social protection during the special quarantine regime

• About 3.5 billion manatwas allocated for support measures under the Action Plan approved in connection with the implementation of the Order of President Ilham Aliyev dated March 19, 2020; 
• The Action Plan includes 12 measures in 4 areas to support employment and social welfare. 600 million manatwas allocated for these purposes according to the new support measures announced by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on April 17; 
• Pandemic-related social support measures cover more than 4.8 million people or 48 percent of the population.

Protection of work places and salaries: 

• Purposeful work is being done to protect work places in the public and private sectors and the salaries of employees. Daily control is carried out over the electronic system; 
• There was an increase in the number of employment contracts, not a decrease: January 1 - May 1: 105,000 increase (including 94,000 in the private sector); 
• During this period, the wage fund on the country increased by 8 percent and the wage fund for private sector increased by 12 percent.

Increasing employment opportunities of the population 

• According to the order of the President, the number of paid public jobs is being increased from 38,000 to 90,000, and 61,000 people have already been involved in public works through the DOST Work Center.

One-time payment program 

• By the decision of President Ilham Aliyev, the coverage of the one-time payment program granted at subsistence minimum (190 manat) over the country for low-income families consisting of unemployed and informally employed people who lost their jobs due to the special quarantine regime has been tripled and covered 600,000 people. The financial capacity is 228 million manat. The one-time payment covers April-May;
• Payments for April were completed in less than a month and were secured through bank branches or post offices.
• The list of recipients of one-time payments has been published on the Ministry's website as an expression of the importance given to public disclosure;
• Payments for May will be transferred to the accounts of unemployed people by opening bank accounts. They are already given bank cards.
• E-social.az portal has successfully fulfilled a large workload in the implementation of the program, which shows that the portal has successfully justified itself; 
• 55% of one-time payments were determined for men and 45% for women. 25 percent are residents of Baku, 4 percent of Sumgayit, 3 percent of Ganja and 68 percent of the regions. 8% of them are under 20 years old, 42% are between 20-30 years old, 25% are between 30-40 years old, 14% are between 40-50 years old, 11% are over 50 years old.

Unemployment insurance and social protection of students of vocational training courses: 

• Payment of insurance to unemployed persons that period of unemployment insurance payments has been expired and granting scholarship to the students of coursesinterrupted in the process of vocational training have been extended. 0.6 million manat has been allocated for this social event, which covers 2,000 people. 

Strengthening social protection measures for particularly vulnerable groups: 

• NOTE: As a result of measures taken in 2019, the forecast on revenues of the State Social Protection Fund (SSPF) under the Ministry was fulfilled by 105.5 percent, as a result of clearing groundless pension cases, a reserve of 200 million manatwas created due to economy to the expenses of Fund. 
• The mentioned 200 million manatreserves are aimed at ensuring the sustainability of social payments to the population. 2.3 million people receive these payments (pensions, benefits, scholarship, etc.);  
• More than 480 million manatwas paid to the population in these areas just in April, which is 27 percent or 103 million manat more than in the same period last year;  
• Payments for these types of social security in April covered 2.3 million citizens, people more than 154,000 or 7% in comparison with corresponding period of 2019. 

Extension and simplification of the provision of targeted state social assistance: 

• During the special quarantine regime, the provision of targeted state social assistance to low-income families that period of the provision of targeted state social assistance has been expired has been extended until the 1st of the month following the end of the quarantine regime.
• From April 1, the number of recipients of targeted social assistance has increased by 12,000 families. In total, 342,000 members of 82.3 thousand families are covered by the targeted social assistance program. The amount of assistance per family is 224 manat.

Social services, food support for lonely elderly people:  

• The provision of social services at home to lonely persons over the age of 65 and the provision of services to persons needing special care in social service institutions is carried out. Social services are provided to more than 15,000 lonely elderly people; 
• 50,000 food rations have been distributed to lonely elderly people and lonely disabled people through social partners; 
• Currently, about 1,000 people are provided with inpatient social services in 9 social service institutions.

Other support measures 

• From March 1, 2020, period of disability of disabled persons including children with disabilities, that period of disability have been expired, has been extended to the 1^stof the month following the expiration of the special quarantine regime. This event covers 14,000 people and 2.6 million manat has been allocated for this purpose.