Lonely pensioners in Armenia not to receive separate assistance

YEREVAN, September 14. /ARKA/. Lonely pensioners in Armenia will not receive separate assistance, Armenian lawmakers refused to consider the legislative amendment package proposed by the Bright Armenia faction. Only 35 MPs voted in favor of the proposal, with 72 “against” and one abstention.

Srbuhi Grigoryan, an MP from the Bright Armenia faction, said it was proposed to provide financial assistance to lonely pensioners taking into account the difficult social situation in the country.

“Taking into account the current social situation in the country, we propose to provide compensation for utility costs to lonely elderly people and persons without heirs, in the amount of 20% of the minimum pension - about 5,000 drams per month,” Grigoryan said.

In her words, given that, according to the ministry of labor, about 11,252 - 11,851 such persons live in the country, the state's expenditure will amount to about 710 million drams, which would allow lonely old people not to spend the money provided for food on utility bills.

“If there are two old people in the family, then one pension goes to the utility services, and the second to food, but it’s difficult for the lonely. In justification for the refusal to consider the bill, we were told that some of them receive money from abroad. But this is not all and we should not close our eyes to the problems of the others,” Grigoryan said.

She noted that as a justification, the government also noted that for social groups there are discounts on gas and electricity for the socially disadvantaged, however, according to the MP, they do not apply to everyone, since there is no gas in many villages.

For her part Heriknaz Tigranyan, the deputy head of the profile parliamentary committee, MP from the My Step faction noted that the bill was rejected because it contained certain threats and needs to be revised.

She noted that for these categories of citizens there are benefits and opportunities, including government programs, which were also used by single pensioners. -0-