The total of 88,7% of Yerevan residents are against introduction of the obligatory accumulative pension system, Director of the Armenian office of Gallup International Association, Aram Navasardyan, said at today's press-conference when presenting the results of the public opinion poll held among 1066 Yerevan residents.
He said that 93% of respondent confessed that they have no information about the pension reform. So, they cannot vote for that. Navasardyan said that the main reason of negative attitude to this reform are lack of trust in the authorities of the country and in the accumulative funds, as well as negative attitude to the obligatory component of the system and lack of trust in returning of the accumulated funds. "However, we were surprised that elder generation are also against the accumulative system, though the obligatory component did not touch on them", - Navasardyan said.
The expert thinks that PR campaign of the reform was not perfect. This resulted in numerous protest actions against the reform. He said that the result of the public opinion poll will be sent to the government, the president's residence and Constitutional Court.
The new funded pension plan, which formally came into force in Armenia on January 1, 2014, is mandatory for those born in and after 1974 and voluntary for those born before 1974. In line with this plan, 5 to 10 percent of the monthly salaries in Armenia will be deducted and mandatorily be allocated to cumulative pension funds; the latter will be reimbursed as pensions once a person turns 63 years old. On January 24, however, the Constitutional Court decided to suspend the execution of some components in the Law on Funded Pensions pending the hearing on March 28.