BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 24

Tendency:

Ensuring the well-being of citizens has always been at the center of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s policy, and in this regard, 2021 was a success in terms of strengthening the social protection of citizens.

2021 has been a success for Azerbaijan, both in terms of social reforms and other areas, member of Azerbaijan’s Milli Majlis (parliament) Javid Osmanov told Trend.

“The Azerbaijani citizen and his well-being have always been at the center of the policy pursued by President Ilham Aliyev. Significant steps have been taken to strengthen the social protection of citizens, especially low-income families.

The decrees and orders signed by the President in 2021 can be considered as a new departure in this area. Only new decrees and orders signed by President Ilham Aliyev in December 2021 have opened a new stage of social reforms that support the well-being of 2.1 million people and provide for the allocation of an additional 1.5 billion manats by year, the minimum wage has been raised from 250 to 300 manats.

This increase concerns 800,000 employees, including 400,000 in the public sector and 400,000 in the private sector. In general, over the past three years, the minimum wage has increased 2.3 times, from 130 to 300 manats. Alongside this, significant steps have been taken in 2021 to increase scholarships, pensions, targeted social assistance and other payments,” the MP said.

He noted that in 2021, the increase in pensions, which is an important component of the social security system, continued.

“Since the start of the year, the insurance portion of pensions has been increased by indexing by 11.4%.

Following the results of 11 months of 2021, the average monthly pension increased by 10% to 331 manats, of which the average monthly old-age pension increased by 9% to 358 manats.

In general, over the past three years, the minimum pension has almost doubled, and the average monthly amount has increased by 60%,” added Javid Osmanov.

MP Soltan Mammadov told Trend that a 60% increase in social security spending, including pensions, benefits and targeted social assistance in 2018-2021, shows the importance Azerbaijan attaches to social protection of the population.

“The fact that the state budget expenditure in this direction reached 6.4 billion manats confirms that strengthening social protection of the population in Azerbaijan is one of the priorities of state policy.

The continued expansion of social protection and active employment programs in recent years, as well as a significant increase in pensions and benefits, social protection for people with disabilities, state support for families with low income, the creation of transparent and efficient mechanisms for social services show that consistent and systematic reforms are being carried out in the country in this area,” Mammadov stressed.

He noted that caring for the families of martyrs and war invalids in Azerbaijan, improving their well-being is one of the main goals of the state.

“12,000 families of martyrs and invalids of war have been provided with private apartments and houses, 7,400 invalids of war have been provided with cars. According to the decree of the Head of State dated January 25, 2021, 11,000 apartments or private houses will be made available to these categories of people in 2021-2025. All these indicators are quite serious. I think these figures once again confirm President Ilham Aliyev’s thesis that an Azerbaijani citizen is at the center of Azerbaijani state politics,” he added.