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The adoption of the presented draft is conditioned by the necessity to bring the regulations regarding the payment of family allowance, social allowance and emergency aid of the Law on State Benefits into compliance with the requirements of the Law on Assessment of Functionality of Person, as well as to specify and improve the processes of appointment and payment of child care allowance up to two years old and one-time child birth allowance.

The draft law on Making Addenda and Amendments to the Law on State Benefits was debated in the first reading during the NA regular sitting. It was presented by the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Davit Khachatryan.

The proposed amendments also stipulate that a one-time child birth allowance will be assigned to a person holding diplomatic service positions in the RA diplomatic service in a foreign country, to his/her spouse in a foreign country, to a person who is a citizen of the Republic of Armenia and works in the administrative, technical or service staff of the diplomatic service, if the registration of the child’s birth was carried out by the diplomatic service of the Republic of Armenia. In this case, the RA Government will define the specifics of applying, assigning and paying for the one-time child birth allowance.

According to the rapporteur, the presented draft will clarify the conditions for assigning a one-time birth allowance and the right to care allowance, defining a feature for the right to care allowance for the guardian of a child without parental care. Next, the conditions for assigning care allowance will be specified as well:

a/ being registered at the address of the place of residence of the parent and child in the state population register of the Republic of Armenia,

b/ the child’s presence in the Republic of Armenia.

The question of the deputy of the Civil Contract Faction Sona Ghazaryan referred to the issue of the parents with two children who are buying an apartment in the regions with a mortgage loan and subsidizing its interest rate by the state. The deputy inquired whether it is possible for the state to extend the repayment of the mortgage not only to the apartment, but also to the plot of land on which the house will be built. In response to the MP’s question, the Deputy Minister stated that the mentioned programme has three components and detailed. “With the first component, the state takes part in the prepayment of a mortgage loan for a family with two children, for an apartment or residential house to be purchased or built in the region. If a citizen builds a residential house on the land, he can apply to the Government when formulating the mortgage loan of the house under construction. The Government will repay the loan as much as it would have paid in advance.”

In this context, the NA Vice President Hakob Arshakyan inquired from the Deputy Minister: Does the family’s mortgage loan have to be formalized before the birth of the second child in order for the state to transfer the advance payment? In response to the NA Vice President’s question, the Deputy Minister noted that when purchasing a house or formulating a construction mortgage loan, there must already be a child in the family, and one must have a mortgage loan that has been serviced for at least one year, before the birth of the second child.

The member of the Standing Committee on Labor and Social Affairs Gayane Yeghiazaryan made a related report. The MP stated that the draft was debated in the relevant Committee and endorsed.

In the previous sitting, the Parliament debated the issue of nominating Anahit Sargsyan for the position of the member of the Competition Protection Commission of the NA With Honor and Armenia factions. On September 12, the NA conducted the voting. The Chair of the NA Counting Commission Narek Babayan informed that 33 of the 107 deputies took part in the voting. 33 MPs voted for the nominated candidate. The Parliament did not approve Anahit Sargsyan’s candidacy.