Legislative Initiative of the Ministry of Social Affairs of Armenia  to establish the maximum amount of pensions has caused discontent of  the Justice Ministry

ArmInfo.The legislative initiative of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia, which the media have already "christened" a document aimed at  reducing the pension of judges, has not been submitted to the  Ministry of Justice, as required by law, reports the press service of  the Ministry of Justice.

We are talking about amendments to the law "On ensuring the  activities, services and social guarantees of officials", which is  from 15-30 October this year. was posted on the single portal of  legal acts e-draft.am.  As stated in the justification for the  document, the goal of the submitted project is to soften the  polarization in terms of the size of pension payments, and to  overcome inconsistencies in them. So, it is proposed to introduce a  new instrument in the state pension system - to set the maximum  pension. After that, no pension can exceed the maximum amount  stipulated by the law. This prerogative, as noted, will be assigned  to the RA government. It is noted that within the framework of the  law "On ensuring activities, services and social guarantees of  officials", as of October 1, 2018, 638 people receive a pension, the  average pension is 344 thousand drams. For certain categories of  citizens, the average pension exceeds this indicator, in particular,  members of the Constitutional Court receive an average of 670  thousand drams, judges 522 thousand drams, prosecutors 384 thousand  drams, employees of the investigative service - 441 thousand drams.

"Considering that the size of the labor pension in the presence of 35  years of work experience is 41,625 drams, and about 17 thousand  pensioners receive a pension below the marginal poverty level, it is  advisable for pensioners who receive a pension under the law" On  ensuring activities, services and social guarantees of officials " to  set the maximum pension to mitigate the discrepancy between the size  of pension payments, "the bill says.

In the meantime, according to the Ministry of Justice, they have not  received this document. At the same time, the department notes that a  high pension for retired judges

- not a privilege for them, but a means of protecting the interests  of society and justice, and a guarantee of their social independence.  The approach also lies at the heart of the relevant European charter,  which the Judicial Code of Armenia adequately states that the judge's  pension cannot be reduced, "except for cases when all senior  officials are adequately reduced."

Meanwhile, in order to overcome extreme (food) poverty among  pensioners, quite recently the Government of Armenia, through the  Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, initiated amendments to the law  "On State Pensions", which, as a result of January 1, 2019, will  increase the minimum pension by 60% - from 16 thousand to 25500  drams. For others, the retirement pension is calculated according to  the following scheme - the basic pension is 16 thousand drams, plus  the premium for seniority - 800 drams for the first 10 years and 500  for the next.