YEREVAN, March 17. /ARКА/. Armenia’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has drafted a set of changes to the Law on Pensions, which call for upward revision of the size of pensions paid to seniors over 90, Deputy Labor and Social Affairs Minister David Khachatryan said during an online press conference on Wednesday.
In his words, one of the changes increases the seniority (length of service) of parents, who cared for their children with disabilities until they reached the age of maturity (18).
According to the deputy minister, pensioners over 90 and those with 1st and 2nd disability categories will not have to visit a bank once a year to confirm they are in Armenia in order to receive their pensions via the bank. Instead, they will be visited at home by a social service employee.
In addition, pensioners over 90 will receive an increase in their pension depending on their age. The amount of raise has not yet been determined, but this change will affect about 11 thousand pensioners.
As for parents who cared for their disabled children, they will have their seniority increased by additional 18 years, up from the current 10 years.
According to Khachatryan, today there are about 600 active pensioners who took care of their disabled children and about 150 of them had a period of more than 10 years of care, which is not taken into account now.
After the changes approved by the parliament, their pension may increase by almost 11 thousand drams. For example, if a pensioner who was caring for a disabled child receives now 31 thousand drams a month, he/she will receive about 42 thousand drams.
The deputy minister noted that the bill will be submitted for consideration to the government and then to parliament and if all the procedures are completed on time, the changes will come into effect in the second half of the year. ($1 – 527.69 drams). -0-