Amid public discontent, Armenian authorities abandoned the idea of abolishing funeral benefits

ArmInfo.  The procedure for paying the funeral allowance in Armenia will remain unchanged: it will be provided to all categories of citizens stipulated by current legislation. Armenia’s Minister of Labor and Welfare Arsen Torosyan said this in a video address posted on Facebook.

In this regard, Torosyan recalled that the Ministry had previously put forward a number of legislative initiatives, one of which envisaged revising the beneficiaries of the funeral allowance in order to make its provision more targeted.  "We monitored the public reaction to this initiative and also held discussions with our colleagues from the parliamentary faction "Civil Contract." Following these discussions, it was decided to abandon any changes in this area and preserve the right to receive the allowance for all citizens who fall within the circle of recipients under current legislation. Thus, the draft law submitted for public discussion will not be sent to parliament," the head of Armenia’s Ministry of Labor noted.

It should be noted that the video, which was posted later, was deleted from Torosyan’s Facebook page.

Let us recall that new legislative amendments in the social sphere were supposed to limit the circle of beneficiaries receiving funeral allowances. Thus, starting January 1, 2027, the allowances were supposed to be received exclusively by persons who had undertaken the organization of funerals for pensioners or members of socially disadvantaged families. On October 1, the head of Armenia’s Ministry of Labor stated that funds from the funeral allowance would be redirected toward increasing pensions in Armenia.

It is noteworthy that, meanwhile, the government approved a bill providing for an almost multiple-fold increase in the salaries of government officials starting January 1, 2027, without thinking about pensioners. Thus, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, subject to parliamentary approval, will receive a salary of 2 662 000 drams ($7353) instead of the current 1.5 million ($4143).  The salaries of deputy prime ministers will amount to 2 163 000 ($5975) drams instead of 1 289 000 ($3560). The ombudsman and prosecutor general will receive up to 1.8 million drams ($4965), the speaker of parliament and the chairman of the Constitutional Court up to 2.4 million drams ($6620), and lawmakers up to 1.4 million drams ($3862). For this purpose, 25 billion drams ($69 million) will be allocated from the state budget.  In other words, the current authorities of Armenia have funds in the state budget to increase their own salaries, while there is no money to raise pensioners’ pensions by 1,000 drams, and the funds were supposed to be taken from funeral payments.