Pensions Increase Promises Will Not Be Fulfilled: Tadevos Avetisyan

The current government's five-year program will conclude next year. There remains only one budgetary year for the fulfillment of populist promises. This was stated by Tadevos Avetisyan, a member of the parliament faction 'Armenia', on his Facebook page.

He noted: 'Let me present some general facts and assessments regarding the unfulfilled social promises. These promises pertain to the 40 percent of our society that falls within the most vulnerable groups, including pensioners, benefit recipients, working poor, the impoverished, and the extremely poor.'

He continued: 'First, let us acknowledge that over the past seven years, the quality of life for these citizens has deteriorated, as the average inflation has exceeded the average growth of their incomes. In section 4.6 of the government’s 2021-2026 program, it was promised that by 2026, the minimum pension would be raised to the value of the food basket, the average pension would be equal to the minimum consumption basket, and the minimum wage would be set at 85,000 drams.'

Now let me present the facts from official statistics. The average monthly pension of around 500,000 pensioners is 49,000 drams, while the cost of the minimum consumption basket for one person is 81,681 drams. Additionally, the average amount of newly assigned pensions is decreasing alongside the reduction of working experience. In 2024, it will be approximately 43,000 drams. Furthermore, around 35 percent of pensioners are poor or extremely poor and receive social assistance.

About 100,000 citizens with less than ten years of work experience receive old-age or disability benefits, which average at 36,500 drams. This means that to fulfill their programmatic promise, this government must raise the average pension amount by 67 percent next year, and the minimum pension amount should be increased by 21 percent, since the current value of the food basket is 44,152 drams.

Moreover, the number of families receiving social assistance has decreased by about 40 percent due to various strict measures implemented under this government, resulting in 60,752 families, 65 percent of which have children. This is despite the average poverty rate remaining virtually unchanged.

The average amount of family social assistance is 36,600 drams, which is about 2.5 times less than even the minimum consumption basket for one person. Those receiving the minimum wage are also working poor, as it is about 7,000 drams less than even the minimum consumption basket value for one person. According to the promise, the minimum wage should also be increased by 14 percent or 10,000 drams next year.

To conceal the unfulfilled social promises, the government plans to increase the maximum amount of arrears for non-cash pension payments next year by only 4,000 drams. Notably, no arrears are made for essential expenses such as utility payments. Next, nearly half of the beneficiaries and pensioners do not actually make use of this arrears. This means that even for pensioners receiving arrears, the average pension amount may rise by a maximum of 4,000 drams or about 8 percent next year, whereas according to the current government’s programmatic promise, it should have increased by at least 67 percent.

In fact, after continually deceiving the public over the past four years and postponing their promises, it has become evident that these promises will also go unfulfilled, as no changes aimed at fulfilling them are envisioned in the latest state budget draft for 2026 approved by this government.