Coverage Of Armenian Army Insurance Fund Further Extended

A special army insurance fund set up to pay compensations to the families of soldiers who die or become gravely disabled while on combat duty will extend its coverage, the Fund’s Board of Trustees decided at its meeting on Friday.

Originally, the compensation scheme financed from the fund to which every working Armenian citizen contributes 1,000 drams (just over $2) per month covered cases registered from 2017 onward.

Under the new government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian the fund last year extended the coverage of its compensation scheme to incidents that happened also in 2015 and 2016.

The compensation scheme allows the closest relatives of soldiers killed or gravely wounded while on combat duty to receive 10 million drams (about $20,600). Wounded soldiers suffering from less serious disabilities are paid 5 million drams. In addition to these one-off payouts, the families of killed or maimed army officers, contract soldiers and conscripts are to receive monthly pensions ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 drams for 20 years.

The Army Insurance Fund’s Board of Trustees decided today that beginning on April 1 benefits will also be paid to servicemen who were killed or wounded in the period from 2008 to 2014.

The meeting was chaired by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Minister of Defense Davit Tonoyan.

During the meeting Varuzhan Avetikian, the Fund’s executive director, presented a summary report on compensations and contributions made since the beginning of 2018, stressing that at the moment the total amount of money in the fund has exceeded 14 billion drams (about $28.8 million), while the total amount of compensations has totaled 941 million drams.

According to the Ministry of Defense, earlier a decision was also made to consider the possibility of extending the coverage of the compensation scheme to incidents that occurred before 2008.

Members of the Board also pointed out that the assets raised through the management of the fund in 2018 exceeded the amount of compensations, which they said “once again proves the high efficiency of the Army Insurance Fund’s activities.”