Pensions without certificates and queues: Uzbekistan transitions its pension system to autopilot

Pension without certificates and queues: Uzbekistan shifts pension system to autopilot

In recent years, Uzbekistan has made noticeable progress towards a model in which citizens increasingly rarely have to prove to the state what is already contained in its own information databases.

While previously a person would come to apply for a pension with a folder of documents, now the system itself increasingly comes to them: first through an electronic application, then through proactive allocation, and in the future — through fully automatic determination of pension rights.

It was this transition that was named the main outcome of the 2017–2025 pension reform at a briefing in the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

During the specified period, 76 regulatory legal documents were adopted in the field of pension provision, including 10 laws, 27 decrees, and 10 resolutions of the President. However, the key result of the reform is linked not so much to the number of new acts, but to the change in the very logic of how the pension system operates.

Previously, the traditional model was built around the citizen: they had to collect documents, confirm their length of service and income, apply to various institutions, and provide information for the pension to be allocated.

Now, this scheme is gradually being changed by digitalization.

Today, the Pension Fund receives 77 types of data in electronic form from the information systems of other ministries and departments. The State Personalization Center, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Digital Technologies, "Uzbekiston Pochtasi", the Tax Committee, the Supreme Court, the National Agency for Social Protection, and other organizations participate in the exchange.

In other words, the pensioner increasingly rarely has to act as an intermediary between government structures.

If the necessary information is already in state information systems, it can be used to determine pension rights without paper confirmations from the citizen.

It is this principle that has become one of the main changes of recent years.

The most illustrative example is old-age pensions.

Since January 2024, citizens have been given the opportunity to submit an application for pension allocation through Public Service Centers or online via the Single Portal of Interactive Public Services.

And from March 1, 2025, the next step was taken — the proactive allocation of old-age pensions was introduced.

Now, in prescribed cases, a person does not need to apply separately for a pension after reaching retirement age: the system must initiate its allocation itself based on available electronic data.

By the end of 2025, 38% of old-age pensions were allocated proactively.

For the average citizen, this means a simple thing: retirement age is turning less and less into a round of visiting authorities.

A similar approach is applied to disability pensions.

From July 1, 2025, when establishing Group I or II disability, the pension began to be allocated proactively — without a separate application from the citizen.

In 2025, 40% of all disability pensions were allocated in a proactive format.

The proactive principle also extends to certain compensations. In particular, payments to persons with Group I visual disability, as well as to citizens who performed military service at nuclear test sites and other radiation-nuclear facilities, are allocated on the basis of electronic data exchange.

Digitalization is changing not only the moment of retirement.

Gradually, information about employment history, wages, and other citizen data is turning into a single digital foundation for calculating pension rights.

At the same time, the rules for calculating pensions were also changing.

In 2019, the maximum amount of wages taken into account when calculating a pension was increased from eight to ten basic values, and in 2023 — to 12.

Since 2023, students and pupils can be paid a survivor's pension for the entire period of study, but not longer than until they reach 23 years of age.

For citizens with Group I and II disabilities, it became possible to count the period of work after the allocation of a pension towards their length of service. For pensioners who continue to work, a pension recalculation is provided every two years.

This is no longer just a conversion of paper documents into electronic form. The very architecture of the pension system is changing: the state strives to collect the necessary information within the system, rather than shifting this work onto the citizen.

Digitalization has also affected the receipt of already allocated pensions.

Electronic exchange of information has been established between the Pension Fund and commercial banks. Now, when opening a bank card, a citizen can simultaneously submit an electronic application to transfer their pension to this card.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, this annually saves more than 2 million citizens from the need to visit the Pension Fund.

Today, 4.3614 million people receive pensions in Uzbekistan.

The payment of pensions is ensured by the 5th day of each month to bank plastic cards, and in cash — from the 4th to the 27th day.

Digitalization is gradually changing the list of services itself.

Today, the Pension Fund provides 25 types of services, of which 18 have been converted into electronic format.

In 2025, citizens were provided with 3,882,589 electronic, proactive, interactive, and composite services.

Through the Single Portal of Interactive Public Services, one can submit an application for pension allocation, obtain information on the amount of pension and allowance, find out information about the allocated pension and registration with the Pension Fund, connect to the "SMS-Pension" service, and use other services.

That is, the pensioner is gradually gaining the opportunity to resolve issues related to payments without leaving home.

Another step was taken from October 1, 2025.

When providing a number of services related to state pension provision, as well as when paying pensions in cash through JSC "Xalq Bank", biometric identification using Face ID and electronic signature acquisition were introduced.

The task of this system is not only to reduce paperwork. It must ensure that the money is received by the exact person for whom it is intended.

For the state, this is a matter of control and targeting of payments. For the pensioner — potentially fewer formalities when receiving their own money.

At the same time, the system itself still remains in a transitional stage.

The figure of 38% of proactively allocated old-age pensions means that the automatic mechanism is already operating, but so far covers far from all future pensioners.

The same applies to disability pensions: 40% of allocations in a proactive format is a significant result, but not 100%.

Consequently, the task of the next stage is not simply to increase the number of electronic services, but to ensure that state information systems contain the most complete and correct information about a person's employment history and pension rights.

This is why digitalization is becoming not a matter of convenience, but a matter of the quality of the pension system itself.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance emphasizes that the pension system will continue to be reformed taking into account advanced foreign experience. The corresponding tasks are defined, in particular, by the Decree of the President dated February 16, 2026.

Now the main question is not whether the pension system can become digital — this process is already underway. The question is different: how quickly can it become so accurate and complete that a future pensioner indeed will not have to prove anything, collect documents, and carry them around offices.