Labour Ministry names payments exempt from Kazakhstan's social aid reform

Kazakhstan's Ministry of Labour and Social Protection said the existing procedure for granting 22 of 36 types of social assistance will be kept. Minister Askarbek Ertayev said at a briefing that the changes will not affect a number of payments to people with disabilities, victims of nuclear tests and victims of political repression. He said the reform does not apply to all benefits, that this should be taken into account, and that many questions are being raised on social media.

Payments not covered by the reform include benefits for World War II participants, people disabled by wounds or illness during the war, and widows of soldiers who died or went missing in the war. Also exempt are compensation for victims of the Semipalatinsk test site, compensation for victims of mass political repression, and benefits for Chernobyl liquidators. Ertayev said: «No needy Kazakhstani will be left without support, this is the main principle of social policy». He stressed that all 22 payments are funded from the republican budget.

Kursiv previously reported that from January 1, 2027, family neediness will be assessed under a new methodology that takes into account income, property and household composition. A welfare calculator is planned for eGov and eGov Mobile to allow preliminary checks of a family's category. At the briefing, journalists proposed checking the minister's own family category; after his income, family and property data were entered, the system placed Ertayev in category B.