Control Mechanisms in the Benefits System Are Ineffective: RA Ombudsman

The 2020 statistics related to the evaluation of household insecurity indicate that the social needs of individuals in difficult life situations are not being fully met and that no conditions have been created for their complete integration into society. This was stated in a press release by the RA Ombudsman.

As in previous years, in 2020, the practice of verbal rejections of representatives of the underprivileged class continued in social support agencies, stemming from the conviction that the poverty score was initially insufficient. As a result, people are excluded from the poverty system and deprived of the right to receive benefits or urgent assistance.

Additionally, there are no proper control mechanisms to evaluate the actions of social support inspectors who directly participate in the poverty evaluation process. This means that when abuses are discovered, the responsibility entirely falls on the beneficiary.

Although tablets have been provided to territorial divisions of social support to make home visits and case management faster, easier, and more transparent, this alone cannot become a lever for preventing abuses and regulating probabilities. Relying solely on mechanical approaches is unacceptable.

One of the long-standing issues in the system for evaluating household insecurity is the deprivation of rights to social or family benefits due to disproportionate changes in the resources allocated for social protection. This issue is also reflected in the Ombudsman’s 2020 report.

For example, in one complaint, a person with a third-group disability was deprived of the right to benefits because the disability benefit increased by 1000 drams. Because of this, these families were not recognized as beneficiaries of the thirteenth measure approved by the RA government to mitigate the economic consequences of the coronavirus.

Considering the above, the Human Rights Defender proposed in the 2020 annual report to: 1. Establish effective control mechanisms over social support agencies to ensure proper administration, eliminate mistreatment, and provide comprehensive advisory assistance; 2. Increase the system's targeting and transparency by introducing comprehensive legislative and practical mechanisms, etc.