From July 1 of this year, the one-time birth allowance for the first and second child will become 300,000 drams. This project, presented by Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zaruhi Batoyan, was approved during the government session. Currently, the one-time birth allowance for the first child is 50,000 drams, and for the second, 150,000.
“That is, in the case of the first child—6 times more, and for the second child—2 times more,” the minister said.
Under another project, from July the childcare allowance for children up to 2 years old will also double. According to the minister, this is being done to mitigate the negative trends in the development of the demographic situation. The current 18,000 drams will become 26,500 drams from July. From the moment the law enters into force, it will apply to all children who have not yet turned 2. In addition to the doubling of the allowance, another significant change has been made. The minister said that from July, in rural communities, non-working mothers will also receive childcare allowance, and working ones—double.
“Until now, we only—that is, under the current regulations—provided the childcare allowance only to working mothers, 18,000 drams, who are on leave, but in this case, since negative trends are also felt in rural communities, to encourage the birth of children, since in rural communities mothers or parents either do more unregistered work or do not have that opportunity, we provide this allowance regardless of that employment circumstance, and in the case of workers the amount increases, and if they work in the village, it doubles. The nanny program is another program, it is an employment program,” the minister said.
Let us recall that from January, pensions and the minimum wage have been raised—pensions by 10 percent, the minimum wage by 13,000 drams. According to the executive’s justification, these changes became possible because state budget revenues have increased.
