Mikheil Sarjveladze, the Minister of IDPs, Labour, Health, and Social Protection, stated that despite the cancellation of the so-called laminated identity cards, citizens will still be able to receive pensions and other social benefits within the next month.
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"To ensure that citizens with paper identity cards do not lose their pensions or other social benefits in the future, I urge them to apply to the houses of justice and obtain a modern identity card," said Sarjveladze at today's briefing. According to the minister, the number of citizens who have not replaced their old certificates with modern documents is quite high.
"As of today, by virtue of the law, identity cards issued before July 28, 2011, have lost their legal validity in Georgia. This means that so-called paper or laminated ID cards are no longer legally valid. The state made a great effort to ensure that everyone with paper IDs replaced them with modern IDs.
To facilitate this, the government decree provides for the replacement of ID cards free of charge. Nevertheless, a significant number of our citizens who hold paper ID cards did not take advantage of this opportunity, and as of today, these people no longer have a valid ID card.
To prevent these people from facing obstacles in receiving their pensions and other social benefits, the Government of Georgia has decided that there will be no obstacles in disbursing these funds for the next month.
However, this does not mean an extension of validity for paper IDs. It simply means that citizens will not face obstacles during this additional period when receiving social benefits. I would like to emphasize that this rule is temporary and cannot continue indefinitely," said Mikheil Sarjveladze.
At the end of last year, the parliament hastily amended the law, which abolished non-electronic, laminated ID cards from July 1. During the parliamentary discussions, it was announced that about 230,000 citizens in Georgia have laminated identity cards, including several dozen who do not receive electronic ID cards because of their religious beliefs.
