Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan has increased annual expenses for social support payments by 60 percent or AZN 2.4 billion ($1.4bn) in 2018-21.

Labor and Social Protection Minister Sahil Babayev made the remarks in an interview with local media sources.

The minister noted that during the reported period, important social reforms were carried out, pensions, allowances, and targeted assistance were significantly increased.

He noted that the reforms also lead to an increase in the number of people covered by social support payments.

"The number of social support payments recipients increased by 160,000 between 2018 and 2021 to 2.56 million," he said.

Earlier it was reported that the State Social Protection Fund has increased social support payments to the population by 3.5 percent or AZN 166.5 million ($97.9M) in January-October 2021.

Citizens were provided with pensions, allowances, and targeted social assistance worth AZN 4.9 billion ($2.8bn) covering 2.4 million citizens during the reported period.

Over AZN 5.7 billion ($3.3bn) was spent on pensions, allowance, targeted social assistance in 2020, which is by 20 percent or AZN 1 billion ($588.2M) more compared to 2019. The number of paid government jobs was increased to 90,000 last year, to expand employment opportunities in the country.

It should be noted that since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has expanded social programs, covering more than 4.8 million citizens.

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad

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