According to a report on the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation web site public meetings were held with pensioners in the Kopet-Dag and Azatlytsky districts of Ashgabat to announce wide-ranging reforms to the pension system. Those present were advised not to put questions to the convenors, among them the Minister of Social Security Bibitach Vekilova, managers and workers from his ministry, and representatives of the security services. The announcement regarded the pension provisions for kolkhoz (collective farm) employees, former state farm workers, individuals with less than twenty years of gainful employment, people with adult children, and the disabled.
Those who fail to provide evidence of having worked for at least twenty years will have their pensions cancelled, as will kolkhoz workers. Pensions across the board have been cut by 100-500,000 manat (roughly $5 to $25)*, which reportedly constitutes a 20% drop.
Social Security Ministry workers have defended the move, arguing that they have been highly precise in carrying out their checks. They have cited the incidence of falsification of documents attesting to prior employment as justification for the withdrawal of pension rights. Meanwhile, a lawyer spoke to the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation about the injustice of the fact that everybody has been subjected to charges of falsification.
One pensioner was quoted as saying that some have been bribing their way out of the quandary.

“A neighbour told me that it might be worthwhile greasing the palm of the people at social security, and they’ll do everything as it should be. Others will suspend your pension on the grounds of falsification. They know that nobody’s going to complain and appeal. Age and health just don’t permit it.”

Others have also said that the pensions of ministers’ wives have also been either cut or annulled altogether.
And yet according to a lecturer in law at the Turkmen State University, the move breaches article 34 of the Turkmen constitution, which states that citizens are entitled to social benefit payments in their old age.
The reasons for this policy have not yet given, though as Mariam Idrisova has said in an article appearing on Prima.ru that the furore has served to overshadow the cut in teaching staff. As Idrisova also said in her article, the worst affected will be those living alone and whose children have left the country. There are also reputedly rumours doing the rounds that these people will have their flats confiscated and be placed in a home for the elderly.
Some rare instances of discontent have been reported in the Dashoguz and Lebap velyats. However, people are said to be wary of expressing their displeasure too openly, as there are also suspicions that security services agents are operating on the ground in civilian clothing.

* If any readers have any more specific detail about the current rate on the black market could they put it in the comments section.