75th Anniversary of Victory: How Republic of Kazakhstan Supports Veterans
13 April 2020
The IPA CIS continues a series of publications dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. This material was prepared by member of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Sergey Ershov and tells about the support of the veterans in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
More than 1,800,000 people left Soviet Kazakhstan for the frontline. Half of them did not return home. More than 500 Kazakh people became the Heroes of the Soviet Union. The memory of the Great Patriotic War is an integral part of the country’s history. Those tragic events left an indelible mark in the life of every Kazakh person. The memory of those who perished in that terrible war is always in the hearts of their friends and families. Nowadays, 1,142 participants and disabled veterans of the Great Patriotic War live in the Republic. There are also 186,981 other categories of persons who contributed to the Victory, including the labour veterans, soldiers’ and veterans’ widows.
Social support of the veterans is carried out in several areas, including pensions and allowances, annual one-time financial assistance.
The support is provided from the Republic budget, by the public organizations and funds, public councils of the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, volunteer clubs. In the framework of that support they may improve their housing and financial situation, get medical care and other services, participate in the educational programs for the youth.
In 1999, benefits in kind were substituted by the monetary payments, which ensured equal access to the veterans of urban and rural areas to the state social security.
The national legislation provides for the housing benefits, priority access to all kinds of telecommunications services, preferential treatment in the health care institutions, favourable taxation rates and other social guaranties.
Nowadays, the state policy regarding the veterans and disabled veterans of the Great Patriotic War, labour veterans and persons of equivalent status is regulated by the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Laws on Benefits and Social Security of Participants, Disabled Veterans of the Great Patriotic War and Persons of Equivalent Status, on Special State Allowance in the Republic of Kazakhstan, on Housing Relations.
At the 4th Congress of veterans, the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan ordered to draft a Law on Veterans, which would define the legal status of the defenders of the Motherland, participants of the military operations and those who worked in the particularly hard conditions of the military time, emergency situations and awarded for their labour.
The above mentioned draft law, as well as a law amending several legal acts on social security, were included into the Plan of Law-Making of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2020.
