Turkey's poverty fund left 60.9 billion lira unspent in 2025

September 23, 2026 at 06:00 AM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Turkey's Social Assistance and Solidarity Promotion Fund closed 2025 with a surplus of 60.9 billion lira, according to the Court of Accounts audit of the Ministry of Family and Social Services. Fund revenues rose 39.54% from 2024 to 146 billion lira, while spending fell 18.28% to 85.1 billion lira. The ministry also cut its current transfers budget by 11.7 billion lira during the year.

Key Facts

The fund's total income in 2025 was 145,988,831,000 lira, while total expenditure was 85,088,267,000 lira, leaving a surplus of 60,900,563,000 lira.
Income and corporate tax collections transferred 110,059,000,000 lira to the fund in 2025, and traffic fines contributed 34,157,000,000 lira.
The Ministry of Family and Social Services reduced its initial current transfers budget from 319,632,000,000 lira to 307,953,000,000 lira during 2025, a cut of 11,679,000,000 lira.
The ministry's final total budget was 413.5 billion lira, but year-end spending was 407.7 billion lira.

Fund Surplus

The Social Assistance and Solidarity Promotion Fund earned 145,988,831,000 lira in 2025, according to the Court of Accounts audit report on the Ministry of Family and Social Services. Total spending, including social assistance and transfers to foundations, was 85,088,267,000 lira. The fund therefore closed the year with a surplus of 60,900,563,000 lira. Compared to 2024, revenues increased by 39.54% while expenditures decreased by 18.28%.

Revenue Sources

Under legislation, 2.8% of income and corporate tax collections and half of traffic fine revenues are transferred directly to the fund. In 2025, income and corporate tax collections contributed 110,059,000,000 lira to the fund. Traffic fines contributed 34,157,000,000 lira, bringing the total from these two sources to 144,217,000,000 lira. These two items accounted for approximately 98.8% of the fund's total income of 145,988,000,000 lira. Given that half of traffic fine revenues are transferred to the fund, total traffic fine collections in 2025 were approximately 68.3 billion lira.

Ministry Budget Cuts

The Court of Accounts data showed that the Ministry of Family and Social Services reduced its initial current transfers budget from 319,632,000,000 lira to 307,953,000,000 lira during the year. This represented a cut of approximately 11,679,000,000 lira from the allocation for social transfers. The ministry's total final budget was 413.5 billion lira, but year-end spending was 407.7 billion lira. Of the 6.6 billion lira allocated for capital expenditures, only 4.1 billion lira was used.