ArmInfo. Promises to increase pensions, benefits, and the minimum wage will not be fulfilled. This was stated by economist and member of the opposition "Hayastan" parliamentary faction, Tadevos Avetisyan.
"This government's five-year program ends next year. One budget year remains to fulfill populist promises. Now, allow me to provide some general facts and assessments of unfulfilled social promises," he wrote on social media.
These promises, he clarified, concern 40% of society, who are among the most socially vulnerable groups, including pensioners, welfare recipients, the working poor, the low-income, and the extremely poor.
First, the economist notes that over the past seven years, the quality of life of these citizens has declined, as average inflation has exceeded the average growth of their incomes.
Meanwhile, Section 4.6 of the government's 2021-2026 program promises to increase the minimum pension to the cost of a food basket, increase the average pension to the cost of a minimum consumer basket, and increase the minimum wage to 85,000 drams by 2026.
In fact, statistics indicate the opposite. The average pension for approximately 500,000 pensioners is 49,000 drams per month, while the cost of a minimum consumer basket per person is 81,681 drams. Furthermore, the average pension currently awarded is gradually decreasing, paralleling the reduction in length of service-in 2024, it was approximately 43,000 drams. Moreover, approximately 35% of pensioners are in poverty or extreme poverty and receive disability benefits, he noted.
At the same time, approximately 100,000 citizens with up to 10 years of service also receive old-age or disability benefits, which average 36,500 drams.
This means, the expert explained, that to fulfill its policy promise, the government will have to increase the average pension next year by 67% and the minimum by 21%, as the cost of the food basket is 44,152 drams.
The number of families receiving social security benefits has decreased by approximately 40%, reaching 60,752 families, 65% of whom have children. This is despite the average poverty rate remaining virtually unchanged.
The average social security benefit for a family is 36,600 drams, which is approximately 2.5 times less than the minimum consumer basket per person. Those receiving the minimum wage are also considered working poor, as their minimum wage is approximately 7,000 drams less than the minimum consumer basket per person. In other words, as promised, the minimum wage will also be increased next year by 14%, or 10,000 drams.
To cover up unfulfilled social promises, the parliamentarian continued, next year it is planned to increase the maximum refund amount for non-cash pension payments by only 4,000 drams. Incidentally, utility bills, the main expense item, are not being reimbursed; almost half of beneficiaries and pensioners are not actually receiving this compensation. This means that even the average pension for pensioners receiving compensation next year could increase by a maximum of only 4,000 drams, or about 8%, while, according to the programmatic promise of the then government, this amount was supposed to increase by at least 67%.
"In fact, after repeated deception and delays in fulfilling promises over the past four years, it has become clear that these promises will not be fulfilled either, since the changes aimed at their implementation are not envisaged in the latest draft state budget for 2026, approved by this government," Tadevos Avetisyan concluded.
