A former human rights defender and opposition figures say the announced pension increase will not ensure a dignified life for retirees, arguing payments remain below minimum consumption levels.
A pensionер will continue to live at a survival level, former Human Rights Defender of Armenia and head of the Tatoyan Foundation Arman Tatoyan wrote on his Facebook page, commenting on reports about pension increases.
“The Civil Contract party has turned our fathers and mothers into a political tool.
Let us see what Civil Contract has done: it increased pensions by 330 drams per day and closed the issue, as if people’s quality of life had changed, especially under current inflation conditions.
Let us see whether this is progress.
In 2025, the minimum food basket amounts to 42,614 drams. This is the sum that allows a pensioner to purchase minimum food products — to survive and not die of hunger.
In addition to the food basket, there is also a minimum consumer basket of 78,836 drams. The consumer basket includes not only food, but also clothing, electricity, water, gas and other payments.
A pension recipient will continue to live at a survival level, not at the level of a dignified life.
One of the most important observations: when a pension increase is announced three months before elections, this is not a reform, but a political calculation that tramples on the dignity of our fathers and mothers.
Pensions must undoubtedly be increased, but this should be a well-thought-out policy, not an action aimed at gaining political benefit by exploiting the older generation.
We will build social policy not on opportunism, but on real indicators aimed at improving quality of life,” he wrote.
MP of the Hayastan faction Tadevos Avetisyan said that Civil Contract had promised to equalize pensions with the minimum consumer basket, which has not been done, according to Pastinfo.
He noted that in recent years, pensions and benefits have grown at a significantly slower pace than recorded inflation. In his assessment, the minimum consumer basket per person has already reached about 80,000 drams, while even after the increase pensions will remain substantially below that threshold.
“Taking this increase into account, the average pension will become about 60,000 drams, while the minimum consumer basket is 20,000 drams higher. That is the reality. In general, this should not have been done in a pre-election phase and within that logic, but has long been an objective necessity,” he said.
Member of the council of the Strong Armenia party and coordinator of the Mer Dzevov movement Narek Karapetyan expressed the opinion that the pension increase was driven by the authorities’ sense of danger. He stressed that the state budget initially did not include a provision for raising pensions, Panorama.am reports.
“The state budget was adopted two months ago under a program that did not include a clause on raising pensions. We consider this a victory and are glad about this fact. Finally, after so many years, such an increase in pensions took place,” he said.
Responding to journalists’ remarks about whether this constitutes an “election bribe” to pensioners, Karapetyan said the main thing is that it have a positive impact on people.
“People who receive 35,000 drams should feel a positive impact. Our society has high legal awareness and high consciousness. I think that whatever they try to do, people will express their opinion. After so many years, a serious change occurred — an unplanned increase in the budget as a result of pressure and a sense of danger; they provided for it and raised pensions. Is this not a victory?” he said.
At the same time, the politician noted that over the past three to four years the actual growth of pensions has not significantly differed from previously announced indicators.
“It would be good if this also had an inverse comparison with bonuses — bonuses should be revised downward, and pensions upward,” he said.
From April 1, pensions and benefits in Armenia will increase, excluding cashback payments, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a Facebook livestream. He justified the decision by citing higher-than-forecast economic growth in 2025.
“From April 1, pensions will increase. Relatively lower pensions will rise by 10,000 drams, relatively higher pensions by less. These calculations do not include cashback received from non-cash trade. Cashback is calculated separately; we have spoken about it many times,” he said.
