First Vice-Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Akmadi Sarbasov at a briefing in the Central Communications Service under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan told about the main novelties of the Social Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which will come into force on July 1 this year. At the beginning of his speech, Sarbasov noted that international experience was studied during the development of the Social Code, the structure of the Social Code of the European Union was taken as its basis taking into account the specifics of our country. The Code consists of 5 parts, 22 chapters and 267 articles.

The social Code eliminates 9 laws and makes amendments and additions to more than 50 legislative acts.

The Vice Minister told in details about the 5 main novelties of the document.

"The first novelty is a Digital Family Card (hereinafter referred to as the DFC), which is formed on the basis of data from all existing information systems of government agencies. The main purpose of its implementation is to ensure equal access of Kazakhstanis to the system of state support. Therefore, in the Code we have designated the DFC as a tool for determining medium- and long-term objectives and directions of social policy. Also, the DFC will be a kind of electronic notifier informing people about the state support they rely on based on the social status and the degree of well-being of family members. The notification will be sent to each family in the form of SMS messages by the central state body. Benefits and payments will be assigned to citizens in a proactive format based on the data available in the information system. The existing paper documents will be stepwise eliminated," said Akmadi Sarbasov.

The second novelty is a new paradigm of state support, which first provides targeted measures to prevent social risks, only then targeted assistance aimed at combating the consequences of social risks. The need for targeted measures will be identified on the basis of data from the DFC.

At the same time, the Social Code provides additional measures of social support for families with children: extension of the period of payments for childcare up to 1.5 years; monetization of a guaranteed social package for children aged 1 to 6 years from among recipients of targeted social assistance; assignment of the status of awarded mothers to women awarded with "Altyn Alka" and "Kumis" pendants alka", and an increase in the amount of benefits for women who have given birth and raised 7 or more children.

"In addition, from 2025, the poverty line for the purpose of targeted social assistance will be determined at the expense of median income, and not from the subsistence minimum. We have studied the approaches used in the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Today, the poverty line in the United States is 40% of median income, in Canada – 50%, in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Germany and France – 60%. We also intend to implement this experience," added Akmadi Sarbasov.

The third novelty is the transformation of the social service system, the main purpose of which is to increase the availability of special social services (hereinafter referred to as SSS) for persons with disabilities (hereinafter referred to as PWD).

"It provides the involvement of family members in the provision of services to a person with a disability. Relatives of PWD will be registered as individual assistants with appropriate wages and social contributions.

Another change is the revision of SSS standards and the introduction of a per capita standard. There will be separate standards for services, and marginal prices for compensatory technical means. These changes, on the one hand, will lead to further monetization of certain types of technical means or goods, on the other hand, the broad involvement of the private sector will ensure the availability of SSS, especially in rural settlements," said the Vice Minister.

In addition, it provides the authority to the commissions on the Social Services Portal (hereinafter referred to as the SSP) created under local executive bodies: receiving and reviewing within 5 days the PWD's application in case of a poor quality product or service; sending a letter to the supplier indicating the deadline for correcting the identified shortcomings and monitoring its execution; making a decision on removing the supplier from the SSP and inclusion in the list of unscrupulous suppliers.

Along with this, the Social Code increases the requirements for social workers and their status.

Thus, only certified specialists whose qualifications are confirmed by an independent assessment will be able to engage in social work. A register of social workers will be compiled with full information about their qualifications, type and quality of rendered services. The wage system of social workers will also be revised, taking into account the level of qualification, category and specifics of the provided services.

The fourth novelty concerns the system of social insurance and pension provision of citizens.

Akmadi Sarbasov pointed that the current insurance system for 5 social risks in Kazakhstan complies with international standards and real economic conditions.

"It will be saved, but its target task is changing. The system will be aimed not only at making social payments, but, first of all, at stimulating legal employment to increase the level of social protection of formally employed citizens," said the Vice Minister.

At the same time, the main trend of the proposed changes is: participation in the social security system of the state, employers and employees; strengthening the relationship between the length of participation in the system and the amount of social benefits; gradual increase in pension and social benefits to employees who timely transfer social contributions.

"So, starting this year, citizens who have lost their jobs, in accordance with the contribution payment period, payments from the State Social Insurance Fund in the amount of 45% of their previous income for up to 6 months are provided.

We believe that the measures provided by the Social Code, the Tax Code and other related laws will make it possible to cover self–employed citizens with the social insurance system as much as possible," said Akmadi Sarbasov.

Speaking about the changes in the pension system provided in the Social Code, the Vice Minister said that the basic pension will be increased for current pensioners in the next 5 years. Also, the amount of the maximum income used to calculate the size of a labor pension increases from 46 to 55 monthly calculation indices or up to 70% of the average salary. For future pensioners forming a pension at the expense of their own savings, from January 1, 2024, additional pension contributions from employers will be introduced.

In addition, the rights of depositors to manage their assets have been expanded. Now, citizens will spend their pension savings above the established sufficiency threshold only on medical treatment and the purchase of housing.

No more than 50% of pension savings remaining after withdrawals, or of the entire accumulated amount, depositors can transfer to private management by choosing an asset management company. At the same time, it should be noted that the state guarantee of the safety of pension savings will apply only to the part of savings managed by the National Bank.

The fifth novelty is new approaches to the field of employment, which will be implemented in the following areas.

The first is the liberalization of the labor market. This means the recognition of all forms of flexible employment, including platform employment.

For these purposes, the concept of an "independent employee" has been introduced – a person engaged in work that brings him income, but does not have official state registration with the relevant authorized bodies. "The activities of such employees will be recognized as formal employment if they join the offer of online platforms or conclude a public contract. For example, taxi drivers who have joined the Yandex Taxi online platform, couriers who have joined the Glovo online platform will be classified as such workers.

Operators of online platforms will transfer tax payments and social contributions in favor of employees in accordance with the current tax regimes. In this case, independent workers, as well as employees, will have the right to receive social benefits from the republican budget, state social funds and insurance companies.

It is worth to mention that the introduced optimal regimes do not require additional registration from today's employees and do not carry an additional financial burden on them," informed the Vice Minister.

The second direction concerns improving the skills of the workforce.

The law "On Professional Qualifications" has been developed, aimed at developing a National Qualifications System that links the education system with the requirements of employers for employees. Educational programs will be developed in accordance with the technical specifications of employers, i.e. professional standards.

A certification system is being introduced to assess skills and competencies.

The third is the formation of digital employment centers.

"Currently, the process of job search, registration as an unemployed person, filling an application for the appointment of unemployment social benefits from the State Social Insurance Fund is fully digitized and implemented through the Electronic Labor Exchange.

In this regard, the Social Code provides the transformation of employment centers into mobile centers that will coordinate all initiatives and programs for the development of regional labor markets, taking into account the specifics of the regions," explained Akmadi Sarbasov.

At the end of his speech, he noted that most of the novelties provided by the Social Code were adopted within the framework of laws prepared in pursuance of the instructions of the Head of the State, and have been implemented since January 1 of this year.

Source: Internet resource: https://gurk.kz/news/a-sarbasov-proinformiroval-ob-usilenii-mer-soczpodderzhki-predusmotrennom-v-soczialnom-kodekse