Government continues to reduce child allowances in 2025

In October 2023, 2.3 million families in Uzbekistan were receiving child allowances. By 2024, this number had plummeted to 1.36 million families. The downward trend is set to continue in 2025, with the number of child allowance recipients expected to fall to 1.25 million families. Budget allocations for these allowances are also decreasing, from 8.1 trillion UZS in 2024 to a projected 7.4 trillion UZS in 2025.

Overall social protection expenditures are expected to grow slightly from 16.95 trillion UZS in 2024 to 17.3 trillion UZS in 2025 but remain below the 19.2 trillion UZS allocated in 2023.

The number of social benefit recipients is also forecasted to decline. In 2024, 2.75 million individuals are expected to receive benefits, down from 2.94 million in 2023, a reduction of 188,000. Most of this decrease is attributed to fewer allowances for families with children and low-income households.

While child allowance recipients are decreasing, other categories of beneficiaries are expected to rise. For example:

• The number of people without required work history or those with disabilities will grow from 539,443 to 568,696 in 2025, with allocations increasing from 5 trillion UZS in 2024 to 5.7 trillion UZS in 2025.
• For individuals with lifelong disabilities from childhood, the government will increase payments from 1.64 trillion UZS in 2024 to 1.98 trillion UZS in 2025, as the number of recipients rises from 152,385 to 192,767.

The most significant cuts to child allowances began in January 2024. That month, 1.94 million families received payments, but the figure steadily dropped in subsequent months to 1.34 million by April.

Comparatively, in 2023, 2.2 million families received a combined 12.3 trillion UZS in child allowances and financial aid. About 22.7% of all households across the country benefited from these programs. However, by the end of the year, the number of recipient families had declined by nearly one million.

The sharp reduction in child allowance recipients reflects a tightening of eligibility criteria or resource reallocation. While the government has increased spending on disability benefits, the cuts to child allowances raise concerns about the potential impact on low-income households, particularly those with young children.