3741 NEW PENSIONERS REGISTERED IN FIRST QUARTER OF 2006 IN ARMENIA

Noyan Tapan
May 15 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. 3741 new pensioners with an average
pension of 8992 drams (about 20 USD) were registered in the first
quarter of the current year in Armenia. As Noyan Tapan correspondent
was informed by Ashot Abrahamian, Head of the Department of Social
Security and separate programs of RA State Fund of Social Insurance,
the number of new pensioners decreased by 1859 as compared with the
same period of 2005. According to him, this is conditioned by the
circumstance that this year the pension is fixed for those born in
1945-1946 and in those years the birth rate was low in the country.

A.Abrahamian said that as of April 1, 530521 people receive a pension
in the country.

150871 of them are aged 63 and below, 160322 are 63-70 years old,
35503 70-75 years old, 79228 75-80 years old and 44597 are aged 80
and above. The head of the department said that 6398 pensioners were
taken off the books in the first quarter for various reasons, 133 of
which were restored in the future.

According to A.Abrahamian, they stopped to pay pensions to 22 thousand
pensioners as the latters were abroad and and to 3600 as they had no
social cards.

A.Abrahamian said that within the framework of the interstate agreement
with CIS countries files of 171 pensioners have been sent to these
countries in the first quarter of 2006. And 59 citizens of other
countries (1 citizen of the Ukraine, 1 of Kazakhstan and the rest
of RF) receive a pension in Armenia. It was also mentioned that 1305
disability pensions have been fixed in the first quarter.