Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Tamara Duissenova informed at a Government meeting about the stages of implementation of the Social Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which comes into force on July 1 this year.

At the beginning of her speech, Tamara Duissenova noted that the Social Code is a single social document that is being put into force for the first time in the CIS. It covers the entire life cycle of a person, namely:

- social support from birth to adulthood;

- employment at working age;

- ensuring occupational safety;

- social insurance measures;

- social assistance in case of a difficult life situation;

- support for the elderly.

"As you know, some of the social support measures provided for by the Code have been provided since the beginning of the year. The rest will begin on July 1," she said.

The Deputy Prime Minister added that the following targeted measures are additionally provided to strengthen the social protection of mothers and children.

Firstly, since the beginning of the year, the period of payment of the childcare social benefit has been extended to 1.5 years. Today, more than 450 thousand families have received such assistance. By the end of the year, it is planned to cover more than 800 thousand families.

Secondly, a guaranteed social package for children aged 1 to 6 years from among the recipients of targeted social assistance (hereinafter referred to TSA) is now provided in monetary terms. Since the beginning of the year, such assistance has been provided to more than 171 thousand children. It is planned to provide 212 thousand children by the end of the year.

Thirdly, from July 1 of this year, the amount of benefits for mothers with many children awarded with "Altyn Alka" will increase to 7.4 monthly figures and will be paid to 90 thousand mothers.

The head of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population (hereinafter - MLSPP) also noted that the Social Code makes a great attention to citizens with special needs.

"The main goal is to increase benefits for persons with disabilities (hereinafter referred to as PWD), as well as to make special social services more accessible.

To do this, from July 1 this year, the amount of benefits for PWD, persons caring for them, and families who have lost breadwinners will increase by 14.5%. Taking into account the increase in the amount of benefits since the beginning of the year by 8.5%, the amount of payments will increase by 23% in general compared to the level of last year," said the Deputy Prime Minister.

It provides for 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.

Also on the proposals of PWD and public organizations:

- the issue of providing high-quality catheters to 282 citizens with a diagnosis of "Bifid back" has been completely resolved. The necessary 328 million tenge will be allocated from the republican budget;

- the standard of hygiene products provided to citizens has increased by 2 times. For this purpose, 5 billion tenge is provided from local budgets;

- in a pilot mode, together with the Ministry of Health, sanatorium treatment of children with mental illnesses will be carried out. The necessary funds have been allocated for the treatment of 1,126 children;

- negotiations have been held with Yandex Taxi for a final solution to the invataxi problem. The services of this platform will be available for PWD in a number of regions.

"In addition, the Social Code provides the introduction of per capita standards of special social services from 2025. Considering that such a change is being made for the first time, we decided to start as pilot project. Since July this year, a pilot project will be implemented in 7 regions to provide special social services in small houses with a capacity of no more than 50 children," added Tamara Duissenova.

She noted that recently the issue of providing high–quality technical means of rehabilitation (hereinafter referred to as TMR) has often been raised. MLSPP considers 2 ways to solve it.

The first one is "Innovative Factory of technical means of rehabilitation" which is being launched this year, jointly with the "Kazakhstan Khalkyna" Foundation, which will allow children to access expensive means of rehabilitation.

The second, the Classifier of technical means of rehabilitation has been completely revised. TMR will be provided depending on the individual needs of each citizen. It is put into practice at the end of the year.

"In order to increase the size of the pension and ensure the financial stability of the system, the parameters for calculating the size of basic and labor pensions were changed at the beginning of the year. As a result of the application of the differentiation mechanism, the amount of the minimum basic pension has increased to 21%. It was social support for pensioners with low pensions. And for future pensioners, from January 1, 2024, additional pension contributions from employers will be made," informed the Deputy Prime Minister.

Also, one of the novelties of the Social Code is to provide the depositor of the "Unified Accumulative Pension Fund" (UAPF) with the opportunity to transfer 50% of his pension assets to private investment management companies of his own choice.

At the end of her speech, Tamara Duissenova said that the Digital Family Card (hereinafter referred to as the DFC), which has been put into effect since the beginning of the year, fully functions as a proactive service tool for the population. During the reporting period, to more than 800 thousand citizens were sent SMS messages to provide state support measures. 650 thousand citizens were paid proactively, 95 thousand citizens – through the State Corporation "Government for Citizens".

Source: Internet resource of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/enbek/press/news/details/580360 ?lang=ru