In Kazakhstan, more than 200 citizens have decided to voluntarily stop receiving certain state benefits. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.

Work in this direction continues, and the number of those who have made such a decision is gradually growing, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population reported.

“Assessing their current living conditions and making sure they can support their family independently, citizens have made such a decision. They are not renouncing state assistance entirely. They are only stopping the receipt of the payment due to them and want this assistance today to be directed to truly needy families,” the statement says.

Among those who have made such a decision are entrepreneurs, parents with many children, and those who have improved their living conditions and can now support their family independently. For example, a resident of Aktobe, a mother of six children and entrepreneur Kalausha Sadykova says that state support was important for her family when she was just starting her business.

“As a mother of many children, I well understand how important state assistance is for a family. When I was just starting my business, this support was very useful for us. Now my business is developing, and I can support my family myself. Therefore, I decided to voluntarily renounce the benefit paid to families with many children,” she says.

Previously, these benefits were assigned depending on whether a citizen belonged to a certain social category. Some benefits were processed automatically without a citizen’s application. But there was no simplified procedure for voluntarily renouncing a benefit via SMS before. Now citizens are being given such an opportunity, according to the ministry.

Earlier, based on data from the Digital Family Map, SMS messages were sent to some benefit recipients from families belonging to category A with a high social status. They explained to citizens the possibility of voluntarily renouncing the corresponding payment.

“A citizen can express a decision to renounce a benefit by replying to an SMS message. The corresponding payments of citizens who have voluntarily renounced will be suspended until January 1, 2027, that is, until the new procedure for assigning certain types of social support comes into force. At the same time, only the payment that the citizen has renounced is suspended,” the ministry reported.

The Digital Family Map helps the state assess the socio-economic situation of each family more accurately. On its basis, state support is provided depending on the real situation of the family. This is also the main goal of improving the social protection system — to provide assistance in a timely manner and direct it primarily to truly needy people, experts say.

At the same time, receiving an SMS message does not mean that the benefit will be automatically suspended or not paid. And citizens who continue to receive the benefit provided by law continue to exercise their legal right to state support.

From January 1, 2027, new approaches will begin to be applied in Kazakhstan when assigning certain types of state social support. When determining whether a person is entitled to the relevant assistance, not only the citizen’s belonging to a certain social category will be taken into account, but also the social well-being of the family, assessed on the basis of data from the Digital Family Map.