Kazakhstan to keep childcare benefit for mothers who return to work

From 1 January 2027, mothers in Kazakhstan may return to work and keep receiving the social childcare benefit until their child turns 1.5, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection said at a briefing held at the SCC. Almas Kurmanov, chairman of the State Social Insurance Fund (GFSS), said that employment will not be grounds for ending the payment if a mother returns before her childcare leave ends.

Currently the fund requests an order confirming a return to work before it stops the benefit; the proposed changes would remove this step. "Tomorrow nothing like this will happen. She will receive her benefit for the full year and a half," Kurmanov said. The right to the insurance benefit would be assigned to the mother, while a father who raises a child alone could receive it, Kurmanov said.

The fund does not consider the mother's priority right discriminatory, citing Article 4 of the law on state guarantees of equal rights and opportunities for men and women, which provides special support measures for motherhood and childhood.