By Trend

Ensuring the well-being of citizens has always been at the center of the policy of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, and in this regard, 2021 was successful in terms of strengthening the social protection of citizens.

2021 was successful for Azerbaijan both in terms of social reforms and in other areas, member of the Milli Majlis (parliament) of Azerbaijan Javid Osmanov told Trend.

"At the center of the policy pursued by President Ilham Aliyev has always been the citizen of Azerbaijan and his well-being. Important measures have been taken to strengthen the social protection of citizens, especially low-income families.

Decrees and orders signed by the President in 2021 can be considered a new beginning in this area. Only new decrees and orders signed by President Ilham Aliyev in December 2021 opened a new stage of social reforms that support the well-being of 2.1 million people and provide for the allocation of an additional 1.5 billion manats per year, the minimum wage was increased from 250 to 300 manats.

This increase covers 800,000 employees, including 400,000 from the public sector and 400,000 from the private sector. In general, over the past three years, the minimum wage has increased 2.3 times from 130 to 300 manats. Along with this, important steps have been taken in 2021 to increase scholarships, pensions, targeted social assistance and other payments," the MP said.

He noted that in 2021, the increase in pensions, which is an important component of the social security system, continued.

"Since the beginning of the year, the insurance part of pensions has been increased by indexation by 11.4%.

Following the results of 11 months of 2021, the average monthly pension increased by 10% to 331 manats, including the average monthly old-age pension increased by 9% to 358 manats.

In general, over the past three years, the minimum pension has almost doubled, and the average monthly amount has increased by 60%," Javid Osmanov added.

MP Soltan Mammadov told Trend that a 60 percent increase in spending on social security, including pensions, benefits and targeted social assistance in 2018-2021, shows how much importance Azerbaijan attaches to social protection of the population.

"The fact that state budget expenditures in this direction reached 6.4 billion manats confirms that strengthening the social protection of the population in Azerbaijan is one of the priorities of state policy.

Further expansion of social protection and active employment programs in recent years, as well as a significant increase in pensions and benefits, social protection of the disabled, state assistance to low-income families, the creation of transparent and efficient mechanisms for social services shows that consistent and systematic reforms are being carried out in the country in this area," Mammadov stressed.

He noted that caring for the families of martyrs and war invalids in Azerbaijan, improving their well-being is one of the main goals of the state.

"12,000 families of martyrs and war invalids were provided with apartments and private houses, 7,400 war invalids were provided with cars. According to the order of the head of state dated January 25, 2021, 11,000 apartments or private houses will be provided to these categories of people in 2021-2025. All these are quite serious indicators. I believe that these figures once again confirm the thesis of President Ilham Aliyev that a citizen of Azerbaijan is at the center of the policy of the Azerbaijani state," he added.