"Fact" daily writes:
The third and subsequent children, up to the age of six, will be given a monthly allowance of AMD 50,000. According to the justification of the project, this is done to improve the demographic situation of the country.
Economist Tadevos Avetisyan, Member of Parliament of the National Assembly "Armenia" faction, notes that the demographic situation under this government is not positive, but, unfortunately, has negative trends in terms of almost all the main indicators. "In the first eight months of this year, both the birth rate and the death rate registered a significant negative trend. In other words, if the programs were effective, then at least the demographic situation, if not to say, we should have a positive record, but at least the negative trend should be prevented.
Regarding this program, it is very important to consider what they promised and what they are doing. It is a requirement of the Constitution of our country, which is also included in the amended Constitution, that we should also have state support for families with many children, which should be fixed by law.
For seven or eight years, they keep promising that they will bring various documents as a strategy, but in reality there is no complete approach. The deterioration of the demographic situation is not caused by one factor, and if you pay an allowance of 50,000 drams for the 3rd child, it does not mean that you provide adequate state support for the situation. In other words, it is not adequate, and secondly, it is not targeted either. There are many families who don't have a third child not because they don't have that 50,000 drams, they are self-sufficient, there are other problems, and the payment of the amount mentioned there is actually not targeted either, especially since they will pay universally to everyone, regardless of social status and status," Avetisyan said in a conversation with "Past".
To improve the life of pensioners, the increase in the amount of back payment in case of trading with a card, from 6,000 to 10,000 drams. The economist emphasizes that it should be noted that they only raised the upper limit.
"Today, the back payment is 6 thousand drams per month, they make it 10 thousand drams, that is, the average pension of a pensioner can increase by only 4000, but in fact, let's state that almost half of the first pensioners use this back payment program, the other half do not.
Secondly, it does not apply to utility bills, the main expenditure direction. They promised that the amount of the average pension should be equal to the value of the minimum consumer basket, but in the best case, they increase it by four to five thousand drams, and that is, they do not directly increase the amount of the pension, but they try to fulfill their promise through back payment. Meanwhile, in order to fulfill it, the pension should increase from 30 to 35 thousand drams in 2026.
In order to cover up that unfulfilled promise, they read some nonsense, as if they are increasing the pension, and that is by a maximum of 4,000 drams. During the period of this government, in the years 2018-25, the minimum consumer basket became 78 thousand AMD from 61 thousand AMD, according to official statistics, that is, the minimum cost of living for one person increased by 17 thousand AMD, at the same time, the average pension increased by half of it.
The life of our ordinary citizens has become worse because the purchasing power of the average pension has decreased. Life has become more expensive by at least 17,000 drams, the average pension of people has increased by 9,000 drams. This is just their face," says our interlocutor.
The government says that it is implementing various social programs, but the poverty level is increasing year by year. "They are guided exclusively by populist goals, they promise, create expectations, they do not implement, the programs are not adequate to the social situation, which leads to the fact that the set goals are not fulfilled.
A populist, people-pleasing goal is voiced, but the support that is placed under it either does not match the goal in individual cases, or does not fully correspond, there are cases where it even contradicts. That is why we are recording such a negative trend of the situation, and whether or not to do programs, to implement new programs, in general, in the sense of social policy, you should consider it important by evaluating the impact. In other words, will that program have an effect or not?
While doing self-targeted programs, boasting, generally does not mean that you will have a positive result. Under this government, they have even reached the point where they are clearly manipulating the situation. The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs has taken statistical indicators of poverty, which are not compatible with each other, and compares them and praises it as if in 2024, poverty has decreased by 2 percentage points compared to 2023.
However, it is clearly written in the data of official statistics that the calculation and the weights of the calculation were changed in 2024, therefore, it is clearly written that the poverty index published in 2024 is not comparable with the previous years. But the minister, who is responsible for the sector, compares and presents a non-comparable index.
Why, because when the situation worsens and the policy does not produce results, they go back to open manipulation and lies," he adds. Avetisyan reminds again that they have not fulfilled any promises. "Three main measurable promises were presented: the amount of the minimum pension should be in line with the value of the food basket, which has not been fulfilled, the amount of the average pension should be in line with the value of the minimum consumer basket, which has not been fulfilled, and the minimum salary should have been set at 85 thousand drams, and today it is 75 thousand, it has not been increased, therefore, it has not been fulfilled either.
No measurable promise has been fulfilled. During the previous seven years under this government, in a collective sense, the quality of life of the socially vulnerable groups of our citizens, who make up 40 percent of our population, has worsened, because the inflation of basic necessities has occurred faster than the incomes of these people, including pensioners, poor families receiving insecurity benefits, and the working poor have increased," Tadevos Avetisyan concludes.
Lusine Arakelyan
Details in today's issue of "Past" daily
