Astana, 26 October. The number of recipients of targeted social assistance (TSA) involved in active employment-promotion measures more than halved between 2021 and 2025, from 27,500 to 12,600 people, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection said in reply to a request from the Kazinform news agency.
Targeted social assistance is a cash benefit paid to low-income families whose income falls below a set threshold. Those able to work are also offered employment measures: job placement, vocational training and support for starting a business. According to the ministry, these measures are meant to raise the incomes of families living on social assistance and so, over time, take them off the benefit rolls.
The trend has been uneven. In 2021, 27,500 TSA recipients were covered by employment measures; in 2022, 31,700; in 2023, 27,200. Then came a sharp fall: 17,600 in 2024 and 12,600 in 2025. The ministry's reply gives no reasons for the decline, so it is impossible to tell whether there are fewer working-age recipients, the programmes have shrunk or the way they are counted has changed.
For comparison: as of 1 October 2026, targeted social assistance was being paid to 222,312 people from 41,252 families.
The rules change from 1 January 2027. Under a government resolution, working-age low-income citizens and families will receive assistance only on condition that they take part in employment measures and sign a social contract.
What it means: The state has been linking welfare payments to work or training less and less often, and from 2027 it is making that link compulsory for everyone able to work. The new rule arrives after the old voluntary model reached fewer and fewer people over five years.
Who benefits: The budget, if the compulsory social contract moves some families into paid work. Working-age recipients will be able to get assistance only by joining employment programmes; the ministry has not estimated how many families this will affect.
Background: Conditional cash assistance is a form of TSA paid in exchange for commitments by the recipient: to look for work, train or start a business. A social contract is the agreement between a family and an employment centre that sets out those commitments.
