Pension reform in Armenia may cause future problems

In the opinion of Tevan Pogosyan, a political analyst, the start of the accumulation pension system in Armenia, under which citizens will contribute their own funds into their future pensions, will degrade authorities' rating. This duty violates the citizens' ownership rights, Anahit Beglaryan, a lawyer, believes.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 12, Mane Tandilyan, the Armenian Minister of Labour and Social Security, announced her resignation because of disagreement with the government about the introduction of the accumulation pension system. She suggested postponing the measure for a year in order to find the best solution.

The additional budget expenses for pension reform are adopted at the background of the growing external debt, which creates the risk of loss of savings in the future, Vahan Kerobyan, a businessman, believes.

In Armenia, the minimum pension is now 16,000 drams (about 33 US dollars), and the average working pension is 39,400 drams (more than 81.6 US dollars), said the pension department of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of Armenia.

The Yerevan pensioners, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot", complained about the small size of their pensions, despite the essential work records they have.

Satik Arutyunyan said that she worked continuously at school since her age of 20; and now her pension is "slightly more than 50,000 drams" (about 104 US dollars) per month.