Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

It has also been proposed to refuse the discriminatory word “disabled” and instead, use “person with a disability” term in law.

HCA Vanadzor often receives applications regarding the inclusion of the time period of caring for a child in the employment history with restrictions.

The thing is that in the RA legislation, a parent takes care of a child until the latter reaches the age of two, and in case of a child with a disability, until he/she reaches the age of eighteen. The same is true also in case of a caretaker of a person with a first degree disability, during the whole period of disability. However, upon reaching the age of pension, that time period is calculated in the employment history with time limits and only provided that the relevant person has the necessary employment history. 

In contrast, the state has not made such mechanisms that would allow those persons to organize the care with the involvement of special structures. And in this case, the caretakers appear in unequal conditions and cannot exercise their right to social security just because factually, they did not have the possibility to work. 

It should be mentioned that there are unequal conditions also in comparison with foster families. The state has created the necessary social safeguards for foster families: contracts are signed with them, based on which the employment period is calculated. 

HCA Vanadzor proposed to make relevant amendments to the RA Law “On state pensions” in order to solve this issue. It has also been proposed to replace the discriminatory term “disabled” (used in the law)  with the term “persons with a disability”.

In particular, we propose

✅To establish a special procedure of calculating the employment history for taking care of a child with a disability or taking care of a person with a first degree disability who has reached the age of 18, in particular, to calculate the care of one calendar year as employment history of one calendar year. 

✅To addend RA Law “On state pensions” Article 29 part 1 (When assigning pension, the following is calculated in the employment history: 1) the period during which the individual has worked in the public service/ entered into employment arrangements with employers (performed hired work), generated income through the delivery of works or services under civil-legal contracts executed after January 1, 2013 and other types of activities, as well as employment and other activities performed in the territory of the USSR; 2) the period during which the individual acted as a private entrepreneur or worked in the capacity of a notary or  the period of paying license fees; 3) the time period of military service as established in Article 31 part 1 clause 1 and 2 of this law (except the period of study in an educational institution), 4) the whole time period of disability  of a person recognized as a disabled who has third-degree limitation of the ability to get engaged in an occupational activity as a result of work-related injury or occupational disease  until he/she reaches the age that allows for a right to age pension) with a new clause 5 of the following content, “5) the time period when one of the parents (adoptive parents, caretakers) takes care of the child with a disability until the latter reaches the age of 18 and the time period when the person recognized as a caretaker takes care of a person with a first degree disability until he/she reaches the age allowing for a right to age pension”. 

✅To recognized invalid RA Law “On state pensions” Article 29 part 2 clause 2 (2.Where the individual has employment history as specified in Article 9, Clause 2 of this law necessary for granting a pension and in case of granting of disability pension, in case of availability of employment history as specified in Article 12 of this Law, the following shall also be treated as part of his or her employment history: ...2) the period during which any of the parents (adopters, custodians) has taken care of his or her disabled child until such a child reaches the age of 18, or the period during which an individual recognized as a custodian has taken care of a person with a first degree disability where such a period shall not exceed ten years).

✅To replace the word “disabled” used in the RA Law “On state pensions” with the term “person with a disability”.   

The full document is available HERE (Armenian)