The name of the Unemployment Insurance Fund under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population should be changed to the Employment and Unemployment Insurance Fund.
This was stated by Vugar Bayramov, a member of the Milli Majlis's Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship Committee, at a joint meeting of the institution he represents with the Parliament's Labor and Social Policy Committee.
"Next year, the Fund's expenses are expected to be 266.4 million manats, of which 77 million manats, or nearly 30%, will be spent on organizing self-employment measures. Unemployment insurance payments, however, will be 28 million manats, which means 10.5% of the total expenses. As can be seen, a significant portion of the Fund's resources will be directed to areas other than unemployment insurance payments. Considering that more funds are directed to active social programs, changing the fund's name would be more consistent with its areas of activity and philosophy," he noted.
The MP added that reaching the needs criterion of 300 manats next year will lead to an increase in targeted state social assistance: "Determining a new needs criterion is important in terms of increasing the number of applications for targeted assistance. Since the needs criterion is increased, more families will be able to apply for targeted social assistance. Currently, 353,300 members from 80,300 low-income families receive assistance. This means that the number of families benefiting from the increases will be quite large."
Furthermore, according to him, next year, the revenues of the State Social Protection Fund under the Ministry are expected to be 8 billion 323 million manats, with 1.7 billion manats of this allocated from the state budget: "That is, more than 20% of the Fund's revenues will be provided from the budget, and this indicator is almost the same as the Fund's approved budget for 2025.
8 billion 146 million manats of the Fund's expenses are payments to the population, including 7 billion 882 million manats for the payment of labor pensions. This means that more than 94% of the Fund's expenses are funds paid specifically to pensioners. Compared to 2025, the funds allocated for pensions next year will be increased by 10%. This means that strengthening the social security of pensioners will remain a focus next year as well.
According to legislation, the indexation and increase of pensions will also be carried out next year. With this, an increase in all types of labor pensions will occur starting from January 2026. This increase will cover approximately 1 million 100 thousand citizens and will be implemented in accordance with the percentage increase in the nominal average monthly wage in 2025. Thus, in the first 9 months of this year, the average monthly nominal wage increased by 9.7% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, reaching 1,093 manats. According to initial expectations, pensions will be increased by 9.2% starting next year." (Report)