Torosyan on Pension and Refund Changes

During a working discussion in the National Assembly, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Arsen Torosyan stated that significant importance is given to improving the living conditions of pensioners, which includes pension payments but is not limited to that.

“We often achieve this goal indirectly—not just by raising pensions, but also by providing related services. The Government has addressed this issue in recent years using innovative tools, one of which is the refund. All our citizens—over 660,000—and some other citizens receiving different types of benefits can receive their pension or benefits through points of sale in a cashless manner and obtain a refund, which until January 1 was 12 percent—up to 6,000 drams, which was increased to 20 percent—up to 10,000 drams in January. Each citizen can increase their basic pension by 10,000 drams,” the minister said.

According to him, pensions have also been raised multiple times through non-refund mechanisms. “We have raised the minimum pension several times, and you know that currently the minimum pension, which is essentially referred to as the old-age benefit, is 36,000 drams, whereas it was previously 16,000 drams. The average pension, without the refund, is currently 49,500 drams, to which a potential 10,000 drams can be added,” Arsen Torosyan noted.