Who can benefit from social programs to neutralize the problems with the coronavirus?

The RA government continues to develop and present to the public its plans to mitigate the economic consequences of the coronavirus. Over the past ten days, the executive has unveiled a package of five social events aimed at making it easier for families in difficult situations these days.

In particular, support from the government is intended for:

• Families with children under the age of 18 whose parents did not have a registered job from March 12 to March 31, 2020, did not receive benefits, and did not have an Individual Entrepreneurship.. They will receive a one-time support of 26,500 AMD for each child.
• Parents (or parent) of children under the age of 14, who were registered employees, resigned between March 13 and 25, and did not get another job. 100,000 AMD for each child.
• Registered employees in the private sector (at least from January 1 to March 13) who were fired between March 13 and 30. 68,000 drams for each citizen.
• Pregnant women who do not work as of March 30 or pregnant women whose husbands were registered employees and were fired between March 13 and 30. One-time benefit for each woman – 100,000 AMD.
• Registered employees who worked in the “affected” areas from March 13 to 30 (hotel and guest house, catering, tourism, hairdressing salons and beauty salons, retail services).

WomenNet.am presents some details of using these social assistance programs, which can be found on the website of the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

Support for people who lost their jobs in March

Citizens who have a child under the age of 14, have been a registered employee and have been fired between March 13 and 25, 2020, and the other parent of the child who has died, is recognized as dead or missing, can also receive assistance. : The beneficiary may be a single mother with a child under the age of 14 or a parent living with the child (if the child’s parents are divorced) who has been a registered employee and was dismissed on March 13-25, 2020.

Support will be provided also to parents who have been fired or did not have a job, or were individual entrepreneurs, whose activities have not been terminated in accordance with the RA Tax Code.

There are also exceptions. The beneficiaries of the program cannot be the citizens whose salaries received during the two months prior to their dismissal exceed 500,000 AMD. Citizens who, after being fired, went to another job between March 13 and 25, 2020, are not considered beneficiaries.

How to apply?

No need to apply. The data of the beneficiaries will be transferred to the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs by the State Revenue Committee. Information on citizens dismissed by the State Revenue Committee on March 13-25, 2020 will be collected from the information base defined by the Law on Personalized Accounting of Income Tax and Social Payment. The amount will be paid to the beneficiary in a non-cash manner by bank transfer. The bank will be selected randomly, the beneficiary will be notified of the transfer of money by e-mail or, in its absence, by registered mail.

Support for people who have lost their jobs in the private sector

Attention! Only those citizens who have been employed in the private sector since January 1, 2020 can become beneficiaries. In other words, if a citizen is hired, for example, on February 1, 2020 and fired on March 13-30, he is not provided with assistance under this program.

In addition, the government has defined areas in which employees cannot be considered beneficiaries of the program. These are banks, credit organizations, pawnshops, insurance companies, currency exchange offices, securities trading companies, investment organizations, investment funds, lottery and gambling companies.

One consideration. Even if the criteria are met, the beneficiary of the program cannot be a citizen whose salary received during the two months prior to dismissal exceeds 500,000 drams.

How to apply?

Important. There is no need to apply for this program, as the data of the beneficiaries will be obtained from the lists submitted by the RA State Population Register and tax authorities. The tax authority will provide the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the Republic of Armenia with the information on the employment relations of persons as of March 30, 2020, on the basis of which the assistance will be provided. There is no need to write an application, the amount will be paid in non-cash form.

Families living on a daily-wages basis will also receive support

One of the most important decisions made in this package is that the government will provide assistance to all families with children whose parents are unregistered workers. In fact, most of these people work in so-called daily wages: taxi drivers, car washes, dishwashers, cleaners or nurses in private homes, and so on. Taking into account the fact that after the announcement of the first social assistance program, social networks were flooded with complaints of daily wage earners, this dissatisfaction reached the government and such a decision was made, although earlier it was stated that there is no such thing as “daily wage earners” in Armenia.

All families with children under the age of 18 will be supported, and there is one of the following circumstances:

– The child’s parents did not have a registered job in 2020. As of March 12, 2020, and did not start temporary or permanent registered work from March 12, 2020 to March 31;

– The he child’s parents or one of the parents were not individual entrepreneurs in 2020 as of March 31, whose activities were not terminated as of the same date as defined by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia;

– The child’s family  as of March 12, 2020 was not registered in the family insecurity assessment system or the family insecurity score was lower than 28.01.

The assistance will be provided once, for each child aged 0-18 in the family, in the amount of 26,500 drams. In other words, if there are three children in the family and the parents are not registered employees and meet the established standards, they will receive 79,500 drams. It is estimated that this assistance will cover about 200,000 children, at a cost of 5.3 billion drams.

The government clarified that those who did not have a job at least between March 12 and 31 are considered unemployed in this decision.

Another exception. The family cannot receive support if the child’s parents or one of the parents from January 1 to  March 1, 2020  had a registered main or temporary job and  during that period, the sum of the average monthly salary of the parents or the average monthly salary of one of the parents exceeded 500,000 AMD.

How to apply?

Applications will be accepted online. To receive support, you need to fill in an online application at http://online.ssa.am/, which will be available from April 10^th. Applications are accepted after April 15^th.

The state will support pregnant women

In addition, the program can provide support to pregnant women who are single and do not work as of March 30, 2020.

There are no restrictions on the program and pregnant women can use other programs. In other words, if a woman is pregnant, but she has a child, she and her husband are unregistered employees, then she can receive assistance for the child in the form of a one-time benefit of 26,500 drams.

One-month and three-month packages from “Armenian Red Cross”

Another program is implemented by the Armenian Red Cross in cooperation with the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. Since the end of March, 1,400 citizens in need of food and hygiene items have been provided with one-month and three-month packages. The beneficiaries are mainly lonely elderly people with disabilities, including Syrian-Armenian refugees and  people living in dormitories.