Twice a year in Turkmenistan, older citizens must scramble for documents proving to their authoritarian government that they are still alive and eligible for their meager pensions.
The requirement for Turkmen pensioners to prove they are not deceased has been in place since 2018.
For anyone who fails to confirm their own existence, pensions are simply not processed.
Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have previously told RFE/RL's Turkmen Service that their aim is to prevent relatives of the deceased from withdrawing their pensions, which are transferred onto plastic cards.
It is not clear how widespread this problem is.
But for the country's seniors, the biannual demand can be a headache to navigate, especially when the government keeps changing the process without letting people know.
According to one woman, whose 70-year-old mother has been struggling to get the proper documentation, the current process involves visiting one doctor and three government offices.
Not only that, but citizens must visit them in the correct order.
"When she couldn't reach the family doctor, she went to the housing administration office in her district to get the certificate," the resident of the western city of Balkanabat told RFE/RL, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But they told her they could only issue a certificate once the doctor had issued his."
After that, said the woman, her mother needed to visit the police for another document, before taking all of the documents to the regional pension fund, so that her payments could finally be unfrozen.
No Country For Old People
If getting approved for monthly pension payments is one thing, withdrawing them is another entirely.
Turkmenistan suffers from a cash crisis that the government doesn't openly acknowledge, and so converting the virtual balance on the cards to cash is fraught with problems.
While the purchase of foreign currency has been officially prohibited in Turkmenistan since 2016, shortages of national currency are a more recent trend.
A pensioner in the eastern city of Turkmenabad told RFE/RL that of the 600 manat pension he was able to draw at an ATM recently, "200 manats were issued in old, torn bills" that many shops and market traders would not accept.
Turkmenistan has a de facto dual exchange rate, with the government's official rate of 3.5 manats to the dollar effectively a fiction. On the black market, considered by Turkmen as a more reliable indicator of the currency's true value, the rate is closer to 20:1.
The pensioner tried at two banks to change the old bank notes for new ones, including the bank whose ATM had issued the low-quality notes, but was unsuccessful.
Turkmenistan Bank denied any responsibility for the bills and demanded video evidence of the withdrawal, the man said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
At the other bank, Halk Bank, he was rudely dismissed by the cashier, who he noticed was attempting to repair ripped bank notes when the pensioner approached his window.
Purchasing power has plummeted over the last decade or so in Turkmenistan amid a protracted economic crisis caused by the country's near-total dependence on revenue from hydrocarbon sales and systemic economic mismanagement.
The country's official minimum pension is 550 manats per month, or about $27.50 in black market terms.
