Astana, 21 October. Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov signed a resolution on new rules for targeted social assistance: from 1 January 2027 the state will take into account the wealth of the whole household, not only whether people belong to certain social categories.
The resolution sets the size and conditions of assistance, as well as the criteria by which authorised bodies can conclude that a person or family does not need state support. Need will be calculated from the family's total income and the number of its members.
Economist Aidarkhan Kusainov considers the reform extremely ill-thought-out and endlessly changing: the very idea of classifying the whole of society, he says, is highly debatable. "Classic targeted social support assesses a person's current income: if he has lost his job, the state helps cover the shortfall," he explains.
Targeted social assistance is a monthly payment to low-income families whose income per person is below a set threshold. The question is how that income is calculated: only from wages and benefits, or from the family's entire property and wealth.
What it means: From 2027 help for the poor will be given not by status (large family, disability and so on) but by the real wealth of the whole family.
Who benefits: Families who are genuinely poor but did not fall into eligible categories gain; those who formally fit a category but are considered well-off by family income and property risk losing assistance; economists warn that the assessment system itself is debatable.
Background: The new rules take effect on 1 January 2027.
List of sources used: BES.media, Forbes Kazakhstan, BES.media
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
