Government wants military personnel to serve longer in Kazakhstan

According to Kaiyrzhan Bimoldin, head of the Center for Retirement Benefits under the Ministry of Defense, the government is going to raise the retirement age for military personnel in Kazakhstan.

As the official noted, the retirement age for military personnel depends on the maximum age people can serve in the army. In 2022, Kazakhstan adopted a new practice when the maximum duration of military service was increased by five years. As a result, the retirement age for servicemen must be expanded by the same length.

At the same time, the size of retirement benefits for military personnel is going to be bigger, as the amount of pension is directly dependent on a service record, Bimoldin added.

«If someone served in the army for 25 years, his minimal retirement benefit is 50%. Each following year of service adds 2% to the retirement pension. For example, if a serviceman served for 30 years, he will get 60% of the retirement benefit,» the official said.

The raising of retirement benefits for military personnel is also implied by the retirement pension law. The size of the increased payment is going to be dependent on the size of the state budget in specific points of time.

Another change is a special automated program that is going to be the main tool to calculate the size of retirement benefits for servicemen and make payments and recalculations. Earlier, all these operations had been conducted manually while hard copy documents were delivered via mail. Sometimes it took months. Now, the entire process is digital and takes just a few seconds.

Currently, the retirement age is 63 years for men and 60.6 years for women in Kazakhstan. However, the retirement age for women is going to be gradually raised to 63 years by 2027.