The National Assembly adopted Wednesday, November 11, amendments to the law on state allowances on the first reading, ARKA reports.

Briefing the lawmakers on the amendments, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Artem Asatryan the latter applied to procedures related to childcare allowance.

“The amendments apply only to children under 2 and are aimed at cutting the red tape,” he said.

The Minister said the allowances will be paid staring January 1, 2016.

“We are going to develop programs of monitoring for all the projects implemented by the ministry to measure their reasonability and effectiveness,” Asatryan noted.

Referring to the childcare system as a whole, he said that the system of prenatal and postnatal benefits will be introduced in 2016, with unemployed women now also eligible to receive the benefits.

The Minister said that the lump sum birth allowance will further be paid for every baby regardless of mother’s employment. AMD 50,000 allowances are paid for each first and second children child, AMD 1 million for third and fourth ones, and AMD 1.5 million for the fifth and the following children.

The Minister also mentioned about a type of benefit for children under 18, intended for socially vulnerable families on welfare benefits.

The head of Prosperous Armenia faction Naira Zohrabyan said it is necessary to create equal conditions for employed and unemployed mothers by paying a monthly allowance of AMD 18,000 throughout two years to both categories.