S.S.B. Going Digital

The Social Security Board is also going digital allowing persons to readily access information by the touch of their fingertip.  Doctor Colin Young says that the board is looking to increase efficiency and improve the services offered to contributors. 

Dr. Colin Young, C.E.O., S.S.B.

Dr. Colin Young

“As a part of the contribution reform, you are paying more, people are demanding better quality service. They want to be served quickly, they want to be served efficiently and they want to be served via channels of their choice. People may not want to come into the branch; they might want to do online and so what we are doing is modernizing the technology platform of social security that is old by using technology. What this means is that we will be moving a lot of the services that we have online. For example one of the issues right now is that you have to physically walk into our branch to check on your contribution history. You’ll have an app that you can check online to see what your employer has played, what you have paid, the total that you have paid. So we empower the employee to make sure that their employers are paying the right amount and so on. Another one is that we will have a doctor’s app where when you go to the doctor and you’re sick, rather than walking that form into the office, the doctor will be able to submit that through the app directly to social security. Again, we talked about biometrics and the use to validate pensioners and so that you don’t have to fill in forms. You will be able to apply for your registration or your card complete almost all of the process online and then you walk in. Right now it takes five days to get a card; we will be able to get a card in two days as a result of the changes that we are making. So essentially we are responding to the demand from our customers that they need to be served better, and they need to be served faster and they need to be served in a way that is convenient to them.”