The Conditional Cash Transfer for Education (CCTE) Project is a conditional cash assistance project that provides cash support to vulnerable households to regularly send their school-age children to school.
As of 2017, the CCTE is available to all children studying in formal education, who have completed their MERNIS registration and have an ID number starting with 9.
The main aim of the CCTE Project is to reduce the financial barriers of poor families who have school-going children and reinforce them to send their children to school regularly. CCTE payments are provided every two months for every child in kindergarten up to 12th grade (in Turkish Public Schools) on the condition that they attend school regularly (the child should not miss school more than 4 days in a month).
The CCTE provides cash payments to eligible families conditional on regular school attendance of their children (from kindergarten to 12th grades). Every two months, cash assistance is uploaded for per school-going-child in the eligible family, if the child meets the conditionality of regular school attendance (unexcused* absence days per month when the school is open) in preceding months. Individual payment amounts differ; girls are entitled to higher amounts than boys; and high school students (9th-12th grades) are entitled higher amounts than primary school students (1st-8th grades) and kindergarten students.
*If a student is absent for more than 4 days, it is required to provide the school administration with an 'official health report' obtained from a family health center or hospital.
"Boys who goes to kindergarten to 8th grade are entitled to receive TRY 90 and 9th grade to 12 grade TRY 130 . Girls who goes to kindergarten to 8th grade are entitled to receive TRY 100 and 9th grade to 12 grade receives TRY 150 . In addition to regular individual amounts explained above, each child will also be provided in the payment months coinciding with the beginning of each school term (September and January).
Additional Payments:
From Kindergarten to 4th Grade
Girls: TRY 250
Boys: TRY 250
Middle (Preparatory) School, 5th Grade to 8th Grade
Girls: TRY 500
Boys: TRY 500
High School, 9th Grade to 12th Grade
Girls: TRY 1000
Boys: TRY 1000
This additional back-to-school Top-Up will also be provided to eligible children recently enrolled in school. As of September 2019, Top-Up Payments are paid beside the additional payments. TRY 500 Top-Up payment are made for middle schoold students (5-6-7-8) and TRY 750 for high school students (9-10-11-12). Top-Up payments are made at the beginning of each school term with the additional payments. "
All families with school-age children, who have completed their MERNIS registration and have an ID number starting with 9 can apply to the CCTE Project.
In order to benefit from the CCTE Project, families must meet the eligibility criteria (including having at least one child attending school) and send their child/children to school regularly.
All families with school-age children, who have completed their MERNIS registration and have an ID number starting with 9 can apply to the CCTE Project.
The eligibility criteria are as follows for each applicant;
• All household members must be registered in Türkiye
• The family must not have any regular income at the time of application (including no high value or income-generating assets);
• No member of the family must have social security; and
• The family must have at least one school-going child at the time of application.
In order to benefit from the project, all of the above criteria must be met and the applicant household must be determined to be in need. Eligibility is assessed according to the same criteria for each applicant.
The applications for CCTE Project are open throughout the year. In order to make the application, a member of the family should go (within working hours) to the Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation (SASF) or a Türk Kızılay Service Centre (SC) in the area where the family is registered. He or she (i.e. the applicant from the family) should be aged 18 years or above (he/she may be 16 or 17 years old if married as he/she will be considered an adult under Turkish law).
Those who wish to apply for the CCTE Project must present their PoMM ID cards (with numbers beginning with “9”) for all members of the family; members not having a “9” ID number cannot be registered to the social assistance information system.
No additional documents for the proof of school enrolment of the children are required for CCTE application. The applications are being registered to a software based on ID numbers of applicants.
Beneficiaries of the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN)/Complementary Emergency Safety Net (C-ESSN) Project can also apply for the CCTE Project. But, in order to get paid from CCTE, the eligibility criteria for CCTE (which are different from eligibility criteria for ESSN/C-ESSN, despite being assessed from the same application form), as well as school-age children in the household should be required to attend school regularly.
CCTE payments are made to the beneficiaries' KIZILAYKARTs every two months (January, March, May, July, September, November) per child for each month of regular school attendance. Beneficiaries are informed about each payment by the Türk Kızılay via text message (SMS). Therefore, it is important for project applicants and beneficiaries to keep their phone information up to date.
Applications for the CCTE Project can be made at the Social Assistance Solidarity Foundation (SASF) or Türk Kızılay Service Center located in the same city where the applicant is registered with the PoMM and in the district where the applicant is registered with the Population Department/MERNIS. This is in accordance with the regulations of the Turkish authorities on registration and the provision of social assistance.
When CCTE Project beneficiaries move to another region, their assistance will be stopped and their eligibility will be re-evaluated by the SASFs office/Türk Kızılay Service Center in the place of relocation after an address update. This is because the final decision on eligibility for social assistance is made by the Local Board of Trustees.
Address registration can be made at the PoMM of the province of residence. No special documents are required to be obtained from the Population Department/MERNIS during the application process for the CCTE Project. For detailed information, you can contact the Migration Management in the region or YIMER 157 Call Center. Afterwards, it is necessary to go to the SYDV or Türk Kızılay Service Center in the new district and re-apply for the CCTE Project. The eligibility of the project will then be re-evaluated by the Board of Trustees of the Foundation.
Applicants are notified via text message (SMS) sent by Türk Kızılay when the evaluation process is completed by SASFs. Families who have not received a text message (SMS) within three months of the application date can consult with the SASFs or Türk Kızılay Service Center where they applied or get information via the free-of-charge 168 Kızılay Call Center. It may take 3 months for the application to be finalized.
Only adults are able to apply for the CCTE Project on behalf of their families, in line with Turkish regulations on the provision of social assistance. Under Turkish civil law, adults are those aged 18 or above, and persons who are aged 16 or 17 and officially married.
In some cases, non-biological parents and other guardians can apply for the CCTE Project for the unaccompanied or separated children, but only if the mother and father are not alive and the applicant is living in the same household with the children. In such cases, the applicant taking care of the children should provide an official document indicating legal guardianship for the children.
In other cases, unaccompanied and/or separated children will be treated separately as child protection cases and should be referred to the relevant authorities.
It depends on the workload of the Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundations (SASFs), but from the date of application, it might take up to 3 months to receive notification of whether or not the applicant is eligible to receive assistance througgh the CCTE Project.
Benefiting from different social assistance does not prevent a family from being assessed as eligible for the CCTE Project. For example, there are many families who benefiting from both ESSN and CCTE.
No, the assistance provided under the CCTE Project will not be stopped, but the payment for the month of unexcused* school absence of more than 4 days will not be provided. Beneficiaries are re-evaluated for the next payment periods. Furthermore, it is not necessary to apply for the project again.
If their school attendance is found to improve to 4 or fewer days absence, CCTE payments to them will be resumed. Termination from the CCTE Project only happens if the family does not meet the eligibility criteria anymore, or if the student leaves school, graduates or dies.
* If a student is absent for more than 4 days, it is required to provide the school administration with an 'official health report' obtained from a family health center or hospital.
Households that are eligible for the project and entitled to receive payments are sent a short message (SMS) containing the details of the bank branch where they will receive their KIZILAYKART. The applicant can pick up his/her KIZILAYKART from the Halkbank branch specified in the SMS by presenting his/her ID card.
During the card delivery, the cardholder is asked to sign a consent form acknowledging that the Türk Kızılay and Project partners have the authority to monitor and cancel the accounts and recover the remaining amounts when not used. When the consent form is signed, the person is authorised to;
1) the KIZILAYKART
2) A sealed envelope with PIN code is delivered.
Households already benefiting from SUY or T-SUY Projects and having KIZILAYKART will not receive a new KIZILAYKART for CCTE. In these cases, two different wallets will be created within the KIZILAYKART and related payments will be made to the different wallets opened for the two projects. Information on different wallets can be seen on Halkbank ATM screens. However, at other ATMs, the total amount inside the card will be displayed, and at POS devices, the money in the ESSN wallet will be spent first.
The amount in the KIZILAYKART that is not received within three months from the date of the short message (SMS) that the applicant has been found eligible for the project and that they can receive their cards is returned to the Project and will not be paid again. Within this process, two warning SMS messages are sent to the beneficiary within two consecutive months that the beneficiary must receive his/her card.
The assistance amount in KIZILAYKART can be used at any ATM to withdraw cash and in Point of Sale (POS) devices to purchase goods in shops. Cash withdrawal of cash from Halkbank, VakıfBank and Ziraat Bank ATMs is free of charge. Commission fees that may be charged for use of other than these bank ATMs is the responsibility of the beneficiaries. Non-Halkbank ATMs may charge a fee for checking account balances; these charges are the responsibility of the beneficiaries. Beneficiaries will not be able to deposit money into the account. If the remaining amount on your Kızılaykart account is less than 50 TL, you can pay your shopping amount using the POS machine. You cannot withdraw amounts less than 50 TL from ATM.
Yes, there are restrictions related with the use of the KızılayKart:
• Internet purchases and mail order purchases are not allowed.
• The card cannot be used outside of Türkiye in ATMs and POS devices.
• The card cannot be used to purchase alcohol or tobacco.
• Balance on the cards can only be accessed with the use of a PIN code by the beneficiaries.
• The card and the account will not have a credit or overdraft facility and the account balance cannot go below 0 at any time.
Beneficiaries will receive an informative text message (SMS) from Türk Kızılay regarding each payment made to their KIZILAYKART. Therefore, it is important for beneficiaries to keep their phone numbers up to date. In addition, beneficiaries can check the amounts remaining on their cards free of charge at Halkbank, VakıfBank and Ziraat Bank ATMs.
If there are any remaining funds in the CCTE account of the beneficiary at the end of the month, these can be carried over to the following month. If the account remains inactive for 6 months, the remaining balance will be swept back and the beneficiary will be informed regarding the sweptback through SMS.
Project applicants and beneficiaries can call the toll free 168 Kızılay Call Center in Arabic, Turkish, English, Farsi, and Pashto languages. ( 1 for Turkish, 2 for Arabic, 3 for Farsi, 4 for English, 5 for Pashto) After you choose your language , press 2 to reach a CCTE operator.
Eligible families will receive CCTE assistance as long as they continue to be eligible, and as long as they are found to be in need during the household verification visit by Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation (SASF) workers.
KIZILAYKARTs have an expiration date on them. The expiration date on the expired KIZILAYKARTs is automatically extended by the bank. If there is a development regarding the card expiration date, this information will be communicated to the beneficiaries through CCTE Project communication channels. Even if the card expiration date is valid; this does not mean that the assistance will continue until the expiration date of the card. If the assistance is discontinued, a short message (SMS) will be sent. Until then, KIZILAYKART will be open for use.
No, ESSN/C-ESSN beneficiaries cannot automatically become CCTE beneficiaries. Because the eligibility criteria are different for these Projects. Being an ESSN/C-ESSN beneficiary does not guarantee the entitlement for CCTE and vice versa. Although application forms for both ESSN/ESSN and CCTE are the same, and applications for both Projects can be made at the SASFs or Türk Kızılay Service Centers (possibly also at the same time), the eligibility assessment for each Project is triggered and completed separately.
The multiple wallets (accounts) enables beneficiaries to make a distinction between money received through different assistance Projects at the time of viewing their balances or withdrawing funds from an ATM. However, at the moment, this is only possible if the beneficiaries use Halkbank ATMs. When the KIZILAYKART is used in other ATMs or POS machines, the funds appear/function as pooled and ESSN assistance comes out first.