According to kz.kursiv.media, starting January 1, 2027, Kazakhstan’s second-tier banks will begin transmitting account and deposit data to the state. This will not apply to all clients: data will only be shared regarding recipients of state benefits and their family members, and only with their consent. Minister of Labor and Social Protection Askarbek Yertayev announced this at a Kurultai meeting.
What is Changing in Benefit Allocation
From January 1, 2027, Kazakhstan is transitioning to a needs-based principle for assigning ten social payments. The government has approved criteria dividing families into categories: according to Yertayev, the system evaluates households based on 50 indicators grouped into eight areas, including salary, movable and immovable property, debt burden, employment, and education.
The source names three specific payments from the list: a one-time childbirth allowance, a monthly childcare allowance, and payments to large families. The remaining seven benefits included in the reform are not listed by kz.kursiv.media.
Families classified as category “A” (high income) and “B” (wealthy) following the assessment will be denied payments. From the example provided by the minister, the category scale is broader: he also mentioned category “C,” to which a household can transition if its situation worsens and where, judging by the context, state support is already due. The source does not disclose the full list of categories and criteria for transitioning between them.
Two Different Mechanisms: Needs Assessment and Bank Data Transfer
It is important not to confuse two elements of the new system. The first is the needs assessment methodology itself: points, 50 indicators, eight areas, and a monthly recalculation of the family’s category. This mechanism operates on data from state databases and does not require bank participation.
The second element is a technical addition to this methodology: the transfer of bank data on accounts and deposits. This is needed specifically to close the gap between official incomes, visible to the state from salary and tax data, and the actual movement of money in family accounts. According to Yertayev, this will allow taking into account not only official incomes but also the real expenses of citizens.
The phrasing “with consent” is key here: the source describes voluntary data disclosure by the benefit applicant and their family members, not blanket state access to the accounts of all Kazakhstani bank clients. This narrows the circle of people whose accounts will enter the system to those who apply for state support themselves.
How the Digital Family Card Works
The foundation of the new system is the “digital family card.” It collects information from state databases and evaluates households across eight areas. “It is important to understand here that the digital family card collects information from state databases and evaluates families in 8 main areas. Based on this overall picture of material and social standing, the system determines the category for the household,” Yertayev explained at the Kurultai meeting.
The integration will affect 30 databases that will be updated daily, while the family category itself will be reviewed once a month. The difference in frequency is not accidental: it is important for the state to see data changes almost immediately, but to assign a household status no more than once a month so the system does not bounce between categories due to one-off fluctuations.
The monthly recalculation is designed as a rapid response mechanism in both directions. The minister gave a specific example: if a family belonged to category “B” in October, but moved to category “C” in December due to new risks, the system will proactively record this change and activate a state support measure without a separate application from the family. That is, the system’s logic works not only to exclude wealthy families from recipients but also to more quickly include those whose situation has worsened in support.
Context: Why the State Needs This Reform
The benefits reform, of which the new data exchange procedure with banks is a part, is linked to a broader review of the social payment system in Kazakhstan. The government has approved new needs criteria, under which wealthy families will no longer be able to receive financial support from the state.
According to Kursiv, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov previously stated that the benefits reform will save the republican budget 2.5 trillion tenge over three years. According to him, Kazakhstanis should perceive state assistance not as a permanent source of income, but as a push toward self-sufficiency and exiting the needy category.
For second-tier banks, the innovation means a new procedure: transmitting data on the accounts and deposits of clients who give their consent as part of a benefit application into the state needs accounting system. The source does not detail through which technical channel banks will transmit this data or which agency receives and processes it directly—it is only known that the decision was announced by the Minister of Labor and Social Protection.