Pashinyan government fails to keep social promises under 5-year  program - MP

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.