Kazakhstan residents may be required to return overpayments of social benefits after annual income checks, reports infohub.kz.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection has amended rules for awarding benefits for unemployment, disability, loss of breadwinner, pregnancy, childbirth, adoption, and childcare up to 1.5 years. The corresponding order No. 296, dated July 8, 2026, has been registered with the Ministry of Justice and will take effect from the date of its first official publication.
Previously, the State Social Insurance Fund verified a person's income only once — at the time of application. If an error wasn't caught immediately, it could go unnoticed. Now the process changes: the fund will annually reconcile recipients' income with data from the State Revenue Committee for as long as the tax authorities are entitled to review and correct reports.
If a discrepancy is found, benefit amounts will be recalculated retroactively, and any overpaid money must be returned. This provision is outlined in the rules for unemployment, disability, and benefits related to pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare.
The new rules primarily affect individual entrepreneurs, heads of peasant and farm enterprises, and their employees — categories that self-declare income. In contrast, income data for employees of legal entities is submitted automatically through employer contributions.
The order also sets a statute of limitations for reclaiming overpaid social contributions: five years for large businesses, subsoil users, and certain other categories; three years for all others. After this period, refund requests will be denied.
At the same time, changes benefiting recipients are included: costs for services of the State Corporation organizing social payments, including bank commissions, will now be covered by the budget. This applies to all types of benefits, including childcare allowances.
The notification procedure for overpayments due to changed conditions (e.g., returning to work earlier than expected while receiving childcare benefits) has been clarified. Now, a repayment notice from the State Corporation branch will only be sent based on a separate decision by the Fund branch, rather than automatically.
Thus, annual income reconciliation could lead to revisions of already approved benefits. Individual entrepreneurs and heads of peasant farms will need to be especially careful with their tax declarations. Discrepancies that previously could go unnoticed will now be systematically detected, and overpayments will have to be returned after the money has already been disbursed and spent.