Tense situation has been created in front of Armenian government building. Civil activists, protesting against an obligatory transition of the republic to the accumulative pension system, the mothers of the soldiers which died in the army, as well as residents of the "Dalma gardens" district which were forcefully removed from their houses several years ago, are holding a protest action in from of the government building.
The participants in the movement "Against introduction of obligatory accumulative pension system" are carrying placards "Stop obligatory racket!", "Stop robbery!", "Hands off our salary!". One of the participants in the action asked the government why when drawing out a new pension system they did not take into account the years of study in the university, the years of maternity leave and the years of serving in the army like an obligatory labor experience. "We shall not allow to "legally" rob the people", - the protestors said.
To note, the police secured the government building and Deputy Chief of Police, Valeriy Osipyan, is personally monitoring the situation, Arminfo correspondent reported.
The pension system reformation was launched in Armenia on January 1, 2011. The obligatory accumulative pension system is planned to be introduced in the country in January 2014. The system targets all those citizens born later than Jan 1, 1974.
The accumulated funds will enable future retirees to shape the size of their pensions at own discretion. Under the reform plan approved by the government years ago, Armenia was to switch to the new system in January 2010 whereby the amount of monthly benefits paid to retired citizens will depend on their and their employers' contributions to the fund. People will send to their accumulative pension account 5% of their salaries every month, and another 5%, but no more than AMD 25,000, will be added by the government. The existing pay-as-you-go system essentially does not differentiate between pensioners' employment histories.