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The actual funding of the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs for 2022 was about 612.6 billion AMD, within the framework of which 126 measures were implemented under 16 programmes, the performance was 98.7 %. The RA Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan informed about this at the extraordinary sitting of the NA Standing Committee on Labor and Social Affairs on March 20. The report on the process and results of the Government programme implementation of the Republic of Armenia (2021-2026) in 2022 was introduced to the Committee for debate.

The Minister noted that from last year’s state budget, around 412 billion drams were allocated to the actual pension security, around 40 billion drams to the improvement of the demographic situation, and around 27.6 billion drams to support underprivileged social groups. About 73.9 billion drams were allocated to social security in 2022, around 1.6 billion drams were directed to solve the problems of people with disabilities, and 860 million drams were spent to solve employment problems. About 9.3 billion drams have been allocated for the provision of social packages.

Narek Mkrtchyan touched upon the measures implemented in the field of demographics and family social guarantees for 2022. Referring to the programme of allocating support for the birth of the 3^rd and every subsequent child in the family, the Minister mentioned that within that framework support was provided to 10,103 children last year.

The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs also presented the amendments made in the sphere of pension security, noting that the main indicators of the pension were changed twice, on January 1 and September 1: the amount of the basic pension was set at 21,000 AMD instead of 18.000 AMD. According to the Minister, in the second half of 2022, non-cash circulation of around 9 billion 600 million drams was secured with pension cards, and the refund given to the beneficiaries of post-transactions amounted to 800 million drams.

In the financial year, around 76,100 families received benefits, the average monthly amount of which was 31.350 AMD.

The Minister answered the MPs’ questions. The deputy of the NA Civil Contract Faction Zaruhi Batoyan, in particular, inquired from the Minister what steps are being taken to eliminate extreme poverty.

Narek Mkrtchyan noted that the employment strategy is also observed as a strategy for overcoming poverty, because it will be possible to provide stable income with employment.

The Committee has taken note of the report on the process and results of the Government programme implementation of the Republic of Armenia (2021-2026) in 2022.