Friday, Septrmber 3, 2010
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| The Social Policy for Elderly in the Republic of Armenia. |
In modern societies during the last 30 years the elderly have obtained a considerable ratio in the population age structure.
Republic of Armenia belongs to the aging societies, because at present the elderly ratio exceeds the prescribed records and indicators.
The outflow of
the population of reproductive and working age resulted in that mainly elderly
remained in the country. Also their number increased in correlation with the
total number of the population. Moreover, there emerges a problem of
unemployment, as the morbidity and death rate is increasing in harsh social and
economic conditions.
In the result of
these tendencies there is a serious change in the composition of population age
group. First, the low birth-rate guarantees neither reproduction of relevant
working resources nor generations. Thus, the number of people over 60 increases:
these are people at pension age and do not participate in the process of
reproduction being already under the care of the society and family. The
provision of the necessary material means for the consuming population depends
on the inputs of the working age people, and if working population decreases and
the number of consumers increases, then there is an abrupt diminution of the
alloted products which result in poverty of the group that has a back impact on
the other layers of the society.
Besides, because
of the low standard of living families are deprived of a livelihood.
Particularly the elderly become vulnerable and are treated as an “additional
consuming stomach”. As the income of the elderly is low each family faces the
problem of taking care of them. The elderly adjust themselves to their new
status with difficulty, because after working for many years, they feel
needless. Consequently this causes resistance and conflict at home.
The number of
single elderly is increasing, moreover, elderly women prevail, taking into
account the fact that life expectancy of men is shorter (70 years) than that of
women (76.4years). Therefore, the increase of single elderly in social, economic
and political sense has become a societal problem for the country and causes
social tension because of the insurance system improportion.
Thus, the aging
of population in RA that has effects on the society results in the following:
1.
The level of economic overload rises due to the increase of the elderly
ratio.
2.
The higher the ratio of the elderly , the more improtant and urgent is
their problem for the the whole society.
3.
The more the elderly, the more their ideas can influence on the decisions
of the governments and on election outcomes.
The elderly in RA have numerous needs and problems, which are acute with their actual loneliness.
The elderly problems that are of economic and social-psychological nature are as
follows:
1. Decent livelihood -
the elderly, particularly the single ones, are the most vulnerable group among
the poor. At present the average pension is not enough for an old person to take
care of his/her basic needs, meanwhile health problems prevail in comparison
with other age groups.
2. Lack of medicine
obtention and access to healthcare system - elderly experience chronic diseases,
face the issue of regular control, healthcare and social service provision.
3. Communal and daily expenses and access to social and daily
services.
4. Isolation from the
society which is an extremely acute problem among single elderly - one of the
elderly peculiarities is the lack of communication. They need to retell their
life story and exchange their experience. The elderly are badly in need of
mutual contact with their counterparts. Besides that, most of them expect more
attention because they perceive that they deserve to be appraised for their
efforts invested in the society. Social and psychological isolation often
results in psychical and somatic disorders and consequantly their aggravation.
The various
needs of the elderly rise from the following problems: 1) obtention of food
assistance, 2) provision of medicine and medical assistance, 3) social and daily
services, 4) social services (individual care, legal consultation etc.), 5)
moral assistance and psychological rehabilitation (appraisal from the society,
recognition of self significance, opportunities of life experience exchange,
physical and psychological protection), 6) communication, contact and leisure
(contact with both acquaintances and other persons of the same age, as well as
possibility of awareness on both domestic and foreign events), 7) social
activeness (opportunity for full participation in the communtiy and public life,
advocacy), some defined privileges etc.
State and
non-state organizations deal with elderly problems and provide services to them.
In the state system such institutional establishments are the boarding houses.
One of state non-institutional forms of service provision is the republican
center of elderly service, that provides home care. The republican centre of
in-home social services for elderly and disabled provides services to 1200 needy
single elderly (at pension age) and disabled of 1st and 2nd groups regardless of
age.
Today the
services provided to the elderly by non-governmental organizations are carried
out via discentralized community-based service provision system. It suggests
elderly service provision at their homes, and in case of centralized service
provision (local centralization) the services are provided either at home or in
community centers. The community-based model of elderly service provision was
introduced in Armenia by “Mission Armenia” NGO.
One of the most
important directions of solving elderly issues is to create a dignified state
pension system, which along with the latest augmentations needs to be developed
and improved.
There are
territorial agencies of social services (TASS) in the state system, the
activities of which are limited by family benefits and by the provision of
specific social assistance to the elderly.
The Social
Situation in Armenia
|
Indicator |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
|
Average number of family members (person) |
3.6 |
3.6 |
3.6 |
3.6 |
3.6 |
|
Number of beneficiary
families (thousand families) |
139.0 |
139.0 |
139.0 |
132.4 |
125.1 |
|
Poverty allowance expenditure as a share of GDP (per cent) |
0.8 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.2 |
1.2 |
|
Average monthly allowance (drams) |
7642 |
9650 |
12115 |
15697 |
17875 |
|
Extreme poverty line, per capita, as to the PRSP (drams) |
7632 |
7827 |
8001.9 |
8206.8 |
8420.2 |
|
Average monthly allowance, per capita (drams) |
2140.0 |
2702.3 |
3393.1 |
4396.6 |
5006.6 |
|
Ratio to the extreme poverty line (per cent) |
28.0 |
34.5 |
42.4 |
53.6 |
59.5 |
|
Base pension (drams) |
3000 |
3000 |
4000 |
4250 |
45000 |
|
Per year value of the insurance length of service |
100 |
140 |
150 |
180 |
210 |
|
Number of labor pensioners (thousand persons) |
485.4 |
489.3 |
483.4 |
477.6 |
481.9 |
|
Average monthly pension rate (drams) |
5660 |
8350 |
9369.2 |
10760.9 |
12060.0 |
|
Number of social pensioners (thousand persons) |
46.7 |
46.1 |
46.1 |
47.7 |
48.0 |
|
Average monthly pension rate (drams) |
3530 |
3900 |
5087.9 |
5452.2 |
5814.5 |
The elderly receive social security entitlements from pensionary fund and social assistance
in form of allowances. Still the beginning of 2000 the Republic of Armenia
approved the new strategies of pension and social security systems that
suggested establishing a social security system of pension during 30 years. It
has already been initiated in the Republic of Armenia and operates according to
“pay-as-you-use” principle:
The current needs and problems of the elderly make the government bear some responsibilities of
elaborating and implementing relevant social policy. At policy level, programs
are being elaborated and the government is entitled to create special conditions
for the elderly. Social policy is an activity or a system of events directed to
the solution of social issues, moreover it is the collective strategy for the
solution of social problems.
The division of
the elderly issues adjunct to RA ministry of labor and social affairs envisages
to implement short-term and long-term programs which are as follows:
organization of social service provision in marzes of Armenia and extension of
the scope of social services for the single elderly and disabled in cooperating
with Mission Armenia NGO, provision of prosthesis and rehabilitation accessories
to the elderly, elaboration of the regulation for rehabilitation assistance, as
well as elaboration of the 2007-2015 special program of social protection.
Within the
framework of social policy elaboration and implemention, several events are
foreseen:
·
Extension of the
addressability of social assistance, regulation of the problems in the field of
social assistance,
·
Cooperation with international and non-governmental organizations.
The long-term programs of social
assistance department of the Ministry of labour and social affairs are:
·
Elaboration of legal acts ensuring the rights prescribed by RA Constitution,
·
Elaboration of by-laws ensuring the implementation of RA laws on social assistance sector and
state registration,
·
Elaboration of a more purposeful and addressable program of allowances directed to the social
assistance of needy families,
·
Coordination of activities for the provision and entitlement of family allowances and one-off
monetary benefits,
·
Improvement of need assessment system on the basis of the results of community and household
research, clarification of the applied criteria and their mechanisms,
·
Enlargement of the role of local self-governing bodies within the framewok of social assisstance
program implementation,
·
Elaboration and implementation of specific programs of additional service provision for socially
vulnerable layers at country level,
·
Enlargement of social work institution and clarification of social worker’s status, rights and
responsibilities.
The perception of the elderly in RA as political and civil resource depends on the process of
elaboration and implemention of social policy directed to the elderly. This
means that the parties concerned should be consistent and partake in the whole
process of social policy directed to the elderly issues.
References
RA Government 738 decree on the approval of RA 2008-2010 medium-term expenditure framework
Social Policy:/ edition by Professor N. A. Volgin, Moscow, 2004
www.mss.am
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/ageing
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