Svetlana Zhakupova summed up the results of 2023 and congratulated the people of Kazakhstan on the upcoming New Year
Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan Svetlana Zhakupova summed up the work of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2023 and congratulated the people of Kazakhstan on the upcoming 2024, wishing all citizens health, prosperity and happiness.
“Dear people of Kazakhstan! The outgoing year 2023 was very responsible for our Ministry in terms of implementing the instructions and tasks set by the Head of State, aimed at strengthening social support, improving the quality of life and well-being of Kazakhstanis.
The main achievement of the Ministry is the adoption of the Social Code, which came into force on July 1 of this year. This is the first such document in the CIS, which consolidated legislation in the field of social security and guarantees the rights of citizens from birth to old age. The Social Code is an instrument for the implementation of new social policy and provides for: the introduction of a Digital Family Card; strengthening targeted social support; transformation of the social service system, increasing the availability of special social services for persons with disabilities; increasing the efficiency of the social insurance and pension systems for citizens; new approaches to providing employment to the population.
As part of the implementation of the instructions of the Head of State and the Social Code, from July 1, a number of benefits were additionally increased by 14.5%. These include disability benefits; in case of loss of a breadwinner; persons caring for a person with group I disabilities and others. Also, the amount of social payments in cases of disability and loss of a breadwinner, paid from the State Social Insurance Fund, was increased by 14.5%. Taking into account the increase in the amount of benefits and social payments at the beginning of the year by 8.5%, in annual terms their amounts increased by 23%.
It should be noted that, as part of the implementation of the instructions of the Head of State and the Social Code, social support measures for various categories of the population, especially families with children and persons with disabilities, have been significantly strengthened this year. Work has begun on transforming the system for providing special social services and implementing new approaches to providing employment to the population.
Also, on behalf of the Head of State, a Digital Family Card was introduced this year, the main goal of which is to ensure equal access of Kazakhstanis to the state support system. The digital family card is a tool for determining medium- and long-term objectives and directions of social policy, as well as a daily “electronic notifier” of citizens about their rights to receive one or another type of guaranteed state support, depending on their social status. Thanks to the introduction of the Digital Family Card from January 1 of this year. more than 795 thousand people received SMS for proactive provision of government services. At the same time, over 313 thousand people took advantage of the opportunity to receive benefits or payments without application.
In order to improve the pension provision of Kazakhstanis, on behalf of the Head of State, in 2023, the minimum basic pension was increased from 54% to 60% of the subsistence level, and the maximum income accepted for calculating the joint pension was increased from 46 to 55 monthly calculation indices.
To increase the level of social protection of Kazakhstanis working in hazardous working conditions, on behalf of the Head of State, amendments to the legislation were developed and approved, providing for the introduction of a special social benefit. Already from January 1, 2024, such workers, upon reaching the age of 55 and having made compulsory professional pension contributions for them for at least 7 years, will be able to receive a payment that will be made from 4 sources. Workers will receive special social benefits until they reach retirement age, the main condition being that they stop working in hazardous working conditions.
Along with this, the Ministry, on behalf of the Head of State, has carried out a lot of work to prepare three very important program documents. These are the Concept of Migration Policy of Kazakhstan for 2023-2027, the Concept of Labor Market Development for 2024-2029 and the Concept of Safe Labor until 2030. Their implementation will ensure the development of the country’s economy by attracting the necessary highly qualified specialists from abroad and the rational distribution of available labor resources between regions, creating 3.8 million quality jobs by 2029, which will amount to 45% of the total employment structure, and will also contribute to reducing the level of industrial injuries, the number of violations in the field of labor protection and reducing the number of workplaces with harmful and dangerous working conditions.
In addition, this year the Law “On Professional Qualifications” was adopted and came into force, which created the legislative basis for the development of the National Qualifications System. It, in turn, will ensure the relationship between sectors of the economy and the education system, the correspondence of the received