President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a videoconference on measures to further strengthen the social protection of low-income families.

It was noted at the meeting that door-to-door surveys showed that 2.2 million people in Uzbekistan are in need of social assistance.

“Although there are 16 ministries and departments in the country dealing with the problems of low-income families, there are a lot of complaints from people in this area because they do not work at the mahalla level.

In fact, khokims of regions, cities and districts, heads of sectors, chairmen of mahallas, assistant khokims, youth leaders, women’s activists should work with this segment of the population every day,” the President said.

It was noted that the scope of work on taking into account the socially vulnerable groups of the population, assigning them pensions and benefits, vocational guidance, employment will be further expanded.

More than 3 million people in the country, or about 9% of the population, are senior citizens.

A community-level system will be set up to provide financial support to the elderly, provide them with daily care and attention. Including:

• more than 16,000 elderly people in need of care and living alone will be treated in sanatoriums every year;
• medicines, prosthetic and orthopedic devices for 25,000 elderly people with severe and low-income conditions will be provided by the state, and the cost of surgical operations will be covered from the budget;
• for senior citizens, sports facilities such as stadiums, tennis courts, gyms, swimming pools will be reimbursed up to 540,000 soums per month;
• the cost of tickets for the elderly to theaters and museums will also be fully reimbursed.  

The Minister of Tourism, together with the khokims of the regions, was instructed to begin their journey to the shrines, newly built parks, cultural complexes and centers of the older generation from May 1.

The targeted program for 2022-2023 will allocate a total of about 600 billion soums for the construction and repair of all public social institutions (430 billion soums) and equipment (150 billion soums).

The President stressed that the system of support for the needy population with disabilities will be further expanded. Including:

• from May 1, enterprises that employ people with disabilities will receive a subsidy of 400,000 soums for each such employee for 6 months;
• self-employed and people with disabilities engaged in handicrafts are subsidized for the purchase of equipment and tools, they are trained in professions at public expense.

From January 1, 2023, a system of state subsidies for the payment of salaries to employees of the Society of the Disabled of Uzbekistan, the Society of the Blind of Uzbekistan and the Deaf Society of Uzbekistan and their territorial divisions will be introduced.

From 2023, the budget of the Fund for Support of Non-Governmental Organizations will be doubled (or increased to 19 billion soums).

Students of non-governmental higher education institutions deprived of parental care (for the purchase of food, clothing and sanitary products) will be allocated 10 million soums a year. In practice, this type of payment is introduced for this category of students studying in public higher education institutions.

State fees for notary and cadastral services (up to 2 million soums) for the transfer of houses provided by the state to children deprived of parental care under their name will be abolished.

The practice of paying 20% of their pensions (in the amount of 124,000 soums) for personal expenses will be introduced to senior citizens living in “Sakhovat” houses without work experience. In practice, this procedure is applied to pensioners living in “Sakhovat” houses.