Armenia’s National Assembly is discussing a rise in the minimum pension, which will require additionally about 800 million drams.
According to Armenian Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Smbat Sayan, the government suggests introducing a new term - the size of the minimum pension.
The minister said the new term means the lowest possible amount of pension. The proposed rise will affect about 18 thousand pensioners. The size of the minimum pension will be 25,500 drams (slightly more than $50), which means overcoming the threshold of extreme poverty among pensioners.
Sayan said that the rise will cost the government budget additionally about 800 million drams, which is provided for by the state budget for 2019, ARKA reported.
According to him, after the adoption of the draft law, the pensions will be recalculated and the underpaid amounts will be paid for the past months of 2019.
According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, at the end of 2018 there were 463,072 pensioners in the country, of whom 460,548 were pensioners with work record, 1,866 were retired military and 658 were other category pensioners. The average pension now stands at 40,477 drams.
