Three-minute read
In August 2025, the Iranian regime delivered another severe blow to its long-suffering population by abruptly cutting essential cash subsidies for three million heads of household. This move, carried out suddenly and without warning, strips a vital lifeline from families already struggling with hyperinflation and deepening economic hardship. While framed as a fiscal necessity, the policy is a clear act of plunder against the middle and lower classes, revealing a bankrupt regime’s desperation to finance its survival at the expense of its people—a decision that is adding explosive pressure to a society already on the verge of a nationwide uprising.
This initial cut is only the beginning of a much broader campaign of economic pressure. According to statements from regime officials, including Hassan Norouzi, the head of the Targeted Subsidies Organization, the plan is to remove a staggering 18 million people from the subsidy rolls by the end of the year. This systematic impoverishment is being imposed on a nation where the cost of living has made government aid an indispensable part of survival for tens of millions.
A Cruel and Impersonal Method
The implementation of the policy has been as callous as the decision itself. Affected families received no prior notification or explanation. Instead, their support was terminated without recourse, followed only by a cold, impersonal text message stating: “You are not eligible to receive subsidies.” This approach underscores the regime’s profound contempt for its citizens, treating them not as people deserving of dignity but as numbers on a spreadsheet to be erased at will.
#Iran’s Missing Billions: Fuel, Medicine #Scandals Reveal Depths of Regime’s Corruptionhttps://t.co/B9cKtJzfQy
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) January 12, 2025
A Deceptive Justification Amidst a Housing Crisis
The regime’s official justification for the cuts is based on a fraudulent “means test.” According to messages sent to disqualified individuals, the reason for their removal was that their household’s “per capita monthly income after deducting housing costs is estimated at more than 10 million tomans.” This threshold is deliberately deceptive in a country gripped by a severe housing crisis.
For millions of Iranian workers, housing consumes over 50% of their monthly income, a fact the regime conveniently ignores. The hypocrisy is further exposed by the government’s own policies. For over three years, the official housing allowance for workers has been frozen at a paltry 900,000 tomans per month—a sum that is virtually meaningless in today’s rental market. By setting an unrealistic income benchmark while suppressing housing support, the regime has engineered a pretext to disqualify millions of struggling families and push them below the poverty line.
#Iran’s Economic Collapse Edges Toward Political Eruptionhttps://t.co/4x3nBqw0CI
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 24, 2025
Plundering the People to Fund a Bankrupt State
The financial motive behind this policy is clear. In the month of August alone, cutting subsidies for three million people saved the government 920 billion tomans. The Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, Ahmad Meidari, claimed these funds would be redirected to an “electronic voucher” program for the poorest citizens. However, such promises have historically served as cover for the regime’s systemic looting. This is not a redistribution of wealth but a massive transfer of resources from the pockets of ordinary Iranians to a state budget bankrupted by corruption, mismanagement, and exorbitant spending on its apparatus of repression and foreign terrorism.
A Regime Sealing Its Own Fate
By targeting households in income deciles four through nine, the regime is not just attacking the poor but also eviscerating what remains of Iran’s middle class. This is the very segment of society whose economic desperation has fueled major nationwide uprisings in recent years. The regime, led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, appears trapped in a cycle of its own making, resorting to policies that guarantee further social explosion.
This assault on the basic livelihood of millions is not a sustainable economic strategy; it is a desperate gamble by an illegitimate regime to prolong its rule. In doing so, it is not solving its financial crisis but is instead pouring fuel on the fire of public dissent. The simmering anger across Iran is reaching a boiling point, and with every family pushed into poverty, the regime brings itself one step closer to the inevitable eruption of a people who have nothing left to lose.