Authorities in Uzbekistan have proposed issuing a one-time financial assistance payment of 1 million soms to over one million vulnerable families this coming November. Plans also include increasing the baseline electricity consumption limits during the heating season for residents living in areas lacking natural gas infrastructure, alongside expanding the overall coverage of compensation programs for electricity, gas, and coal supplies. These provisions are outlined in a presidential decree draft published by the National Agency for Social Protection under the President for public review.
According to official explanatory materials released by the government, the one-time aid is intended to reach upwards of 1 million 17 thousand families. An allocation of 1.9 trillion soms is reportedly envisioned to fund these additional social support measures. The payments are scheduled to be disbursed in November 2026 to help cushion the economic impact ahead of the 2026/2027 heating season.
Specific criteria have been established to determine eligibility for the assistance. For families not currently listed in the Social Register, a primary condition is that the average monthly income per capita must not exceed twice the minimum consumer expenditure threshold, amounting to 1.43 million soms. For residents of multi-apartment buildings connected to centralized heating systems in Tashkent, a higher threshold of 2.145 million soms is proposed to account for local living costs.
Furthermore, the draft framework reportedly permits local municipal task forces to include certain vulnerable households whose incomes slightly exceed the standard limit. Additional beneficiary lists are to be compiled by local community mechanisms, prioritizing single-parent households, families raising individuals with disabilities, and those requiring long-term medical care.
In a related measure, authorities intend to raise the baseline monthly electricity consumption limit from 200 kWh to 350 kWh during the heating season for residents residing in ungasified regions and remote districts. The initiative also seeks to prolong existing tariff compensation mechanisms for energy resources to alleviate utility burdens for hundreds of thousands of households.
Source: www.gazeta.uz