DOST Digital Innovations Centre — Azerbaijan's Automatic Disability Benefit Assignment System

Azerbaijan's Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population introduced the Disability Subsystem in 2015, an electronic platform that replaced paperwork-heavy, in-person disability assessments. Hospitals now transmit medical data electronically; each case is encrypted, anonymised and randomly distributed to a Medical-Social Expert Commission so reviewers do not know whose case they are assessing; decisions are electronically signed and delivered directly to the applicant by SMS.
Since 2022 the system has operated under the DOST Digital Innovations Centre, which unified the ministry's IT functions and now applies artificial intelligence to flag potential fraud in disability assessments. Automatic case-extension logic means people with long-term conditions no longer need to reapply or attend repeat in-person reviews.
By the operator's own account, the Disability Subsystem processed over 736,000 applications between 2015 and 2025, including 85,000+ in 2023 alone, and automatic extensions spared 250,000 individuals from annual repeat office visits. Independent govtech coverage separately reports that the DOST Centre has served 9.2 million people (in a country of 10.2 million) since 2022, digitised 91.5% of the ministry's 160 services, and can process up to 25,000 benefit assignments in a single day, including 250,889 proactive social payments in 2024.
These figures come substantially from a DOST-staff-authored account and from DOST's own reporting; no independently audited evaluation of assessment accuracy, appeal rates or disabled applicants' experience of the automated process was identified. Independent govtech media corroborate the platform's overall scale and proactive-service model but do not evaluate disability-specific outcomes.

Read the full analysis: https://disabilityinsider.com/2025/11/04/technology/innovation-with-impact-azerbaijans-digital-path-in-disability-assessments-and-payments/