Man Owns Apartment on Mashtots Avenue but Receives Social Benefits from the State: Prime Minister

Our formula for overcoming social problems is work; if a citizen is able to work, why should the state pay them social benefits? This was stated today by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during the discussion of the execution of last year's state budget in parliament.

“Overall, our policy in the social sector will be reformed based on the following logic: if a person is capable of working and there are jobs in the market, why should the state pay them social benefits?” the Prime Minister emphasized, noting that this is particularly important given that there are people in Armenia who own expensive apartments but still receive benefits from the state.

“Of course, these cases are not numerous, but they exist. For example, we can have a situation in Armenia where a person has an apartment that could be worth $300,000 or $500,000 at today's market value, but they are receiving benefits from the state. This makes no sense,” he said.

Pashinyan noted that he had previously conducted similar statistics, asking for reports on whether there are people in Yerevan who own an apartment on Mashtots Avenue but are receiving benefits, and it turned out that there are.

“Or there are people receiving 26 or 30 thousand drams in benefits, but their monthly loan payments are 400 thousand drams. They are paying the banks 200 thousand, 400 thousand, and we have a case with a 700 thousand dram loan payment each month. They close their loans every month, but tell the state to provide them with 30 thousand drams in support. I mean, in terms of social policy, our perceptions need to change somewhat,” he added.