Georgia to Review Social Assistance Database Amid Growth in Beneficiaries, ‘Economic Success’

2026-02-20 - 11:34

Georgia will begin an active review of families registered as socially vulnerable to ensure state aid reaches only those who qualify, Georgian Dream Health Minister Mikheil Sarjveladze said on February 20, citing, among others, a steady growth in beneficiaries no longer compatible “with the economic success.” The announcement follows longstanding concerns that a large share of the country’s population – 710,000 persons – relies on state assistance. Per the preliminary results of the latest 2024 census, the country’s population is estimated at 3.9 million, including up to 257,000 foreigners. The decision to review the data also comes amid repeated remarks by Georgian Dream officials that the database no longer reflects reality, citing what they describe as the country’s improved economy. “It is a fact that the Unified Database of Socially Vulnerable Families could not be brought into conformity with the recognized economic success the country has had in recent years,” Sarjveladze said during a briefing, noting that this created a ground “for manipulation with the said figures and for creating false impressions.” Sarjveladze clarified that more than 185,000 families, or about 710,000 people, currently receive financial assistance. In total, he said that nearly 400,000 families, around 1.3 million individuals, are registered in the database, and while more than half of them do not receive financial assistance, they still benefit from various state-provided privileges. “Our objective is that only those families and individuals who, under current legislation, genuinely qualify for state financial support remain in the database,” Sarjveladze said. The Health Ministry’s Social Service Agency will launch an “active process” of verifying households listed in the database in the coming months, the GD minister said. The checks will prioritize households deemed most likely to no longer meet eligibility criteria. As one filtering indicator, he noted, authorities will consider families that have received a monthly income of at least GEL 2,000 [about USD 746] over the past three months. The Ministry also plans to refine evaluation methods and introduce mechanisms to remove financially secure families from the registry. Authorities Cite ‘Anomalous Cases’ Sarjveladze said that eligibility criteria had been expanded twice since 2012 by raising the threshold score determining qualification, allowing more people to receive support. Without those changes, he argued, the number of beneficiary families would be “no more than 120,000, instead of 185,000.” Sarjveladze also attributed the growth to a moratorium introduced after the COVID-19 pandemic, when family verifications were largely suspended. “As a result, the database still includes individuals and families who, fortunately, no longer require social assistance from the state,” Sarjveladze said. He further cited what he described as “completely anomalous cases” of households continuing to receive the state assistance, and the number of which, Sarjveladze said, “is not small.” The GD minister offered individual examples, including a household that earned “tens of thousands of lari” over the past three months; a family that purchased several cars “worth tens of thousands of lari” within a year; a family who bought a 2024 model car; and a family that “has taken out a bank loan amounting to several hundred thousand lari.” The issue of revising the social assistance database has been raised repeatedly by Georgian officials in recent months. Addressing the parliament in November 2025, GD Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said the number of social assistance recipients should be reassessed, citing economic growth and a decline in poverty rates. He argued that more citizens currently receive benefits than fall below the poverty line and also attributed the increase in beneficiaries to a pandemic-era moratorium on eligibility reviews. The issue resurfaced on February 17, when Kobakhidze once again called for revising the database during an interpellation session. “It is not possible for the number of social assistance recipients to increase under conditions where poverty has been halved,” he said, citing preliminary analysis suggesting about 8 percent of social assistance recipients are “well-off.” Economic Progress and Persisting Challenges Georgia operates a wide range of social protection programs, including the Targeted Social Assistance (TSA) scheme, which provides monthly cash support to the poorest households based on a welfare score. The Unified Database of Socially Vulnerable Families, set to be revised in the coming months, falls under the TSA scheme. Additional programs offer social packages for vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities, veterans, and orphans, covering essential needs such as utilities, transportation, medication, and housing. It also recently became known that starting in 2026, Georgia is discontinuing the public employment program launched in 2022, which tied continued social assistance eligibility to beneficiaries’ willingness to take up publicly offered “300 lari” jobs. While Georgian officials have consistently highlighted economic progress, including steady GDP growth, authorities in recent months have also acknowledged persisting economic challenges such as high grocery prices. The Georgian Dream government has since established several mechanisms to address the issue, including a parliamentary commission, a government commission, and a separate investigation by the State Security Service of Georgia. Author: Nino Baindurashvili Also Read: 13/12/2025 – Georgia’s Public Employment Program is Ending. Was It Ever About Employment?