Kazakhstanis are increasingly being drawn into schemes to fraudulently obtain social benefits through social media, with citizens offered fake employment, artificially inflated social contributions, or unemployed status while actually holding a job. In 2025, more than 30 criminal cases were opened over illegal benefit claims across 12 regions of the country, and seven of them have already ended in court convictions, infohub.kz reports.

According to data from the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population, seven court verdicts have already been handed down in such cases in five regions. Investigations uncovered instances of citizens being lured into illegal benefit schemes through advertisements and offers on social media.

The ministry stresses that citizens do not need to turn to intermediaries or pay third parties to be granted social benefits. The decision is made by the State Social Insurance Fund on the basis of conditions and information stipulated by law.

The ministry urges people not to accept offers to arrange fictitious employment relationships or to provide false information in order to receive a benefit.

"If a social benefit is found to have been received unlawfully, the funds must be returned in accordance with the procedure established by law, and the deliberate provision of knowingly false information may entail liability under the law," the ministry warned.

Citizens are also advised not to hand over their ID card details, bank card and confidential banking information, SMS codes, electronic digital signature data or other personal data to strangers.

In addition, there is no need to pay for the services of those who promise to "guarantee a benefit," "speed up its receipt" or "extend the payment."

According to the State Social Insurance Fund, 1,064,000 people received social benefits between January and August 2026. The total amount of payments came to about 527 billion tenge.

Compulsory social insurance provides for payments in six types of social risk: loss of ability to work, loss of a breadwinner, loss of a job, loss of income due to pregnancy and childbirth, adoption of a newborn child, and caring for a child up to the age of one and a half.

The conditions and procedure for granting benefits can be checked through the official resources of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population, the State Social Insurance Fund and eGov. A single contact centre, 1414, handles additional questions.

It was previously reported that state benefits and allowances will be granted to Kazakhstanis using artificial intelligence.