Administrative services in the field of social protection and social security: current state and prospects for reform

The article carries out a scientific analysis of the concept, characteristic features, types and mechanisms of providing administrative services in the field of social protection. The current state of the mechanism for the provision of social services in Ukraine and the prospects for reforming this sphere in the future are considered. It is noted that the legal provision of social services in Ukraine is based on several key legal acts and strategic documents. This is, in particular, the Law of Ukraine «On Social Services», which defines the basic principles, types, procedure of providing social services and is aimed at creating a competitive market of social services and ensuring their availability for all citizens. The strategy for the development of the social services system for the period until 2025 defines strategic directions and tasks for improving the quality of social services, including decentralization, standardization and quality monitoring. The legal provision of social services also includes a number of state social standards and guarantees established by laws and other normative legal acts, which standards determine the minimum amounts of social benefits, pensions and other types of social assistance. Social protection is characterized as a system of economic, social, legal, and organizational measures that provides able-bodied people and citizens with appropriate conditions for improving their well-being at the expense of personal labor contributions, and the disabled and socially vulnerable strata of the able-bodied population - guarantees in the use of public consumption funds, material support, tax reduction. Various approaches to the classification of administrative services of a social nature based on legislative and scientific-theoretical principles are highlighted. The mechanism for providing administrative services of a social nature is revealed. It has been established that administrative services are provided by subjects of administrative service provision directly and through centers for the provision of administrative services or through the Unified State Portal of Administrative Services. It is emphasized that reforming social services in Ukraine is an important direction of state policy aimed at improving the quality and availability of social services for citizens.