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Official Defends Controversial Government Plan To Cut Maternity Bene

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  • Official Defends Controversial Government Plan To Cut Maternity Bene

    OFFICIAL DEFENDS CONTROVERSIAL GOVERNMENT PLAN TO CUT MATERNITY BENEFITS

    YEREVAN, October 27. / ARKA /. Smbat Sayan, the deputy chairman of
    the State Social Security Service, an affiliation of the Labor and
    Social Security Ministry, defended today a controversial government
    plan to cut maternity benefits paid by the state in Armenia, saying
    it does not run counter to Armenia's international obligations.

    Smbat Sayan was speaking Monday at parliamentary hearings on the
    government bill submitted to the parliament this month that would cut
    the amount of benefits by at least 20 percent. The financial support
    is paid to working mothers during 140 days preceding and following
    the birth of a child. Pregnant women with work experience of up to 1
    and 3 years would be paid sums equivalent to only 40 percent and 60
    percent of their wages respectively. The current law says the monthly
    allowances must fully match the salaries of women employed by public
    or private entities

    The bill expands the number of women entitled to maternity allowance.

    More specifically, the government plans to start paying maternity
    allowance also to non-working women from 2016. The amount of that
    allowance is to be calculated based on the minimum monthly salary
    which is now 50,000 drams.

    The proposed changes made dozens of angry young women rally in Yerevan
    last Thursday outside the government building to protest against the
    government plan.

    "No international treaty signed by Armenia says that maternity benefit
    must fully match the salaries of employed women. Relating agreements
    say the benefit must be as close to salary as possible and the size
    is to be decided by the government based on its financial capacity,"
    said Sayan today.

    According to Labor and Social Security Minister Artem Asatryan, the
    amount of money spent by the government to pay maternity benefits has
    increased approximately three-fold - from 4.5 billion drams to almost
    12 billion drams in recent years, although no rise in birth rate was
    reported, neither a rise in salaries of pregnant women. According
    to him, the birth rate in Armenia remains almost unchanged - about
    42,000 a year.

    The bill was criticized by minority parliamentary parties. Thus,
    Heghine Bisharyan from the Rule of Law party argued that a working
    mother could reconcile with a benefit in the amount of 80% of her
    salary, but not with 40% and 60%.

    "You have taken the practice of post-Soviet states, which is not the
    best one and you want to apply it in Armenia", she said.

    Elinar Vardanyan from the Prosperous Armenia accused the government
    of drafting the bill to "cover its administrative shortcomings."

    According to minister Artem Asatryan, about 20% of women who receive
    maternity allowances are enrolled 2-3 months before delivering their
    babies. He says when adopted the revised law will increase the number
    of beneficiaries by 30,000 by 2016, which will require additional 8
    billion drams.

    According to the labor and social security ministry, given that by 2016
    the minimum monthly salary is to rise to 80,000 drams, a non-working
    woman will receive about 365,000 drams in maternity allowance. The
    net amount will be 274,000 drams). ($ 1 - 409.40 drams). -0--

    http://arka.am/en/news/society/official_defends_controversial_government_plan_to_ cut_maternity_benefits_/#sthash.EMLTeCEG.dpuf

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