"Fact" daily writes:
The authorities regularly try to present to the public that they have increased the pension, simply "not directly", but "mediated". They mean, in particular, the system of back payments. Experts, however, claim that there was no actual pension increase during the reign of Nikol Pashinyan. First, in the case of the system of retroactive payments, pensioners can get small amounts back, taking into account that basic expenses, say, utility bills, etc., do not provide for retroactive payment.
Second, as Nairi Sargsyan, head of the "I am Armenia" initiative, notes, 20 billion drams have been set aside in the 2026 budget for the back payment of pensioners' non-cash payments. "If we divide this number by the number of pensioners, we get 3,333 drams per month for each pensioner.
Moreover, this is in the best case. It is just a shame to connect this manipulation with the increase of pensions," he says. As for the topic of general increase, Sargsyan notes that during the administration of Nikol Pashinyan, the inflation was about 30 percent. But this refers to the inflation of 450 product groups, while the inflation of essential goods was about 40 percent. In other words, the average pension of 40 thousand drams was devalued by 16 thousand drams.
"Actually, 8 years ago, 40,000 drams had 16,000 drams more purchasing power than now. Even if we deduct the above-mentioned 3333 drams back payment, as well as the 2000 drams by which they increased the pension during their administration, it turns out that those 40 thousand drams have less purchasing power by 10-11 thousand drams. In other words, Nikol Pashinyan and his government not only did not increase the pension, but also reduced it by 10-11 thousand drams," says Nairi Sargsyan in an interview with "Past".
Details in today's issue of "Past" daily
