Socially vulnerable status and disability status: how they affect funding for treatment and how to obtain them

What are socially vulnerable status and the rating score?

Officially, no separate document is issued for this "status". There is a unified database of socially vulnerable families, created by Government Resolution No. 126 of 2010 and maintained by the Social Service Agency. A family counts as registered in the database once it has been assigned a rating score. The score is a notional indicator of the family's socio-economic situation: the lower it is, the more vulnerable the family is considered to be.

The score is calculated per family, not per person. A family means the people who permanently live in one separate dwelling and run a joint household, and it may consist of a single person. A member who has been abroad for more than three consecutive months, for example, is not counted as part of the family, although there is an exception: the period does not count when a member under 18, or the person accompanying them, is receiving cancer treatment abroad funded from the state budget.

A family can be registered in the database if its members are citizens of Georgia or hold a status-neutral identity card, a permanent residence permit, a residence permit for a stateless person with status in Georgia, or refugee or humanitarian status.

What does each score give you in healthcare?

Healthcare programmes have their own thresholds, and the same score can produce different results in different programmes. The table summarises the state rules in force in 2026.

If a person falls into several categories, universal healthcare gives priority to the group with a score of up to 70,000, then to pension age, severe disability status, veterans and children with disabilities. The detailed packages and co-payments are in the universal healthcare guide.

Municipalities are not bound by the state thresholds. Under the 2026 Zugdidi healthcare rules, for example, co-funding for operations and medicines requires a score below 65,001, and for expensive diagnostic tests below 100,001. So check your own city's rules separately; we explain how in the municipal assistance guide.

How do you apply to the Social Service Agency?

1. Fill in the application

   The application is submitted on the prescribed form to the agency's local office for your place of permanent residence. It can also be filled in by the family's authorised representative, that is, an adult member with legal capacity or a legal representative.

2. Wait for the visit

   By submitting the application, the family agrees to let an authorised agency officer into the home between 8:00 and 22:00 and to show them round. Before the visit, the agency checks each family member's income against Revenue Service data.

3. Take part in the interview

   The family declaration is filled in during the visit. The family names a representative to answer the questions, while the agent gathers objective information by looking round and checking documents.

4. Register as a jobseeker if required

   In a one-person family, or when a family has more than one non-working member who is able to work, those members must register as jobseekers on the worknet.gov.ge portal.

5. Receive your score and an extract

   The deadlines of the General Administrative Code apply to the assignment of the score. An adult family member or legal representative requests the extract from the database, and it has the same legal force as the documents on which the entry is based.

Get the extract as soon as you start looking for funding for treatment: the municipality asks for it, it is attached to applications to the referral commission, and it confirms your category wherever there is no automatic check.

What does the agent check and what should you avoid?

The family declaration has several sections: housing, family members' personal details and physical condition, education and income, land, livestock and other property, and utility costs. Disability, orphan or single-parent status is recorded in the declaration only with a supporting document, so have these documents ready before the visit. The agent checks disability status assigned after 1 February 2024 in the electronic register.

Some income is not counted towards family income. This includes student grants, jurors' fees, temporary pay from an election commission, military reserve pay and social benefits for high-mountain settlements. If you have income of this kind, tell the agent and show a document.

The costliest mistake is inaccurate information. If it is found that the family provided false or incorrect information, the agency may end or refuse the registration and bar a new application for one year. The bar applies to every adult member of the family, even if they move to a different home.

When and how does the score change?

The score is not permanent. It can go up or down, or the registration can end altogether, and the family has deadlines in this process:

• Correcting an error within 90 days. If information was recorded incorrectly during the assessment, you can request a correction by application, with a document, within 90 days of the assessment. After that, a correction is possible only through a reassessment.
• Reassessment after one year. If the score does not match your situation, you can request a reassessment once a year has passed since it was assigned. The agency may also reassess the family on its own initiative.
• Reporting changes. You must inform the agency of a change of address, a change in family composition, going abroad for more than three months or an increase in income by the end of the month following the month of the change.
• A newborn or a deceased member. When a child is born, the agency may add them without a reassessment if no more than two years have passed since the last assessment and since the birth. When a member is removed, the family is reassessed.
• Automatic termination. The registration ends without an assessment if the family's taxable income from salaries has equalled or exceeded GEL 1,250 per member per month over the last three months. The same happens if the score exceeds 200,000 and the family requests neither a reassessment nor a correction within 90 days.

These deadlines matter especially during treatment: a change in score can change your universal healthcare category in the middle of treatment. Under the programme rules, a planned or emergency case already started by a beneficiary of the basic package is completed under the package it began with, whatever the change in status, unless the person becomes eligible for a more complete package, and a guarantee letter already issued remains valid until it expires.

How is disability status established?

Disability status is established by an authorised medical facility following an assessment, on the basis of the Law on Medical and Social Assessment. The law recognises four degrees of limitation: mild, moderate, significant and severe. Status is granted for a moderate, significant or severe degree, and a person under 18 is assigned the category "child with disability status".

During the assessment, the facility takes a clinical and occupational history, examines the person and studies the documents; where needed, it refers them for further tests or requests information from other facilities. If the person cannot attend because of their health, the examination takes place in hospital or at home. The tests needed to assign the status, except high-tech tests, are included in the universal healthcare package. Since 1 February 2024, assessment results have been recorded in the electronic register of persons with disabilities.

Review periods

The status is reviewed periodically: once a year for a moderate or significant degree, once every two years for a severe degree, and in some cases it is set for 6 months. The status is granted indefinitely, for example, for irreversible changes where at least 5 years of observation have shown no effect from rehabilitation, or for a person over pension age whose clinical prognosis is unfavourable. If you do not attend, the status is suspended, so note the review date in advance.

If you are abroad, the repeat assessment can be done remotely by video link, on the basis of a notarised Georgian translation of your foreign medical records. We prepare such translations through our notarisation service.

How does disability status affect funding for treatment?

The effect of disability status depends on the degree. In state programmes it works as follows:

• Universal healthcare. A person with a severe disability and a child with disabilities belong to the protected group: the co-payment for planned surgery and emergency hospitalisation is 20%, but no more than GEL 1,000, and specialist doctors are free of co-payment. Cardiac surgery and cancer surgery for a child with disabilities are not subject to co-payment.
• Referral commission. Severe disability status gives medium funding status, without an income check. How the commission works is explained in the Referral Services Programme guide.
• Medicines. Children with disabilities and people with severe or significant disability status are beneficiaries of the chronic disease medicines programme.
• Rehabilitation. The 20-day rehabilitation course for chronic lung diseases also covers people with severe or significant disability status.

If a family has both statuses, universal healthcare checks the score first: a score of up to 70,000 gives a more complete package than disability status, so prepare both documents in advance.

What if you think your score or status is wrong?

The agency's assignment of a score, refusal to correct it or termination of a registration is an administrative decision. The first step is always to check the 90-day correction period: if the error is obvious (for example, a family member was recorded twice or the property belongs to someone else), a correction is much faster than a dispute. If that period has passed or the agency disagrees with you, the decision can be appealed within the statutory deadline; we explain how in the guide to appealing a refusal.

Advocat.Ge lawyers help with collecting documents, the correction request and the complaint as part of a legal consultation, and if the status is linked to an inheritance or guardianship matter, the guardianship page shows which steps are needed.

Frequently asked questions about social and disability status