The government increases the funding of the “babysitting program”. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zaruhi Batoyan announced this today at the government meeting.

With the presented project, Batoyan proposed to allocate an additional 77,334,000 drams for the purpose of allocating money to the nanny for child care in case of returning to work to the parents who are taking care of children under 3 years old.

“There are more applicants, the number of applications is large. Last year, 200 were planned, but since this year the number of beneficiaries has become 475, we decided to increase the number of beneficiaries in the order of priorities,” said Zaruhi Batoyan, clarifying that the duration of the program is 2 years for each beneficiary, therefore, when including this year in the program, it is necessary to take into account that this amount will also be allocated in the next year’s budget, writes Sputnik.

Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia presiding over the government session Nikol Pashinyan highlighted the need to expand the program, noting that the program has served its purpose and should be continued with the prospect of further expansion.  

To remind, according to the decision adopted by the government in 2018, if working parents hire a nanny for children under 2 years old, the state compensates 55,000 drams of the monthly fee paid to the nanny. This is not only an additional support for working parents, but also solves the issue of nannies being provided with work.

Two or more children under the age of 2, as well as parents with a disabled child, have the right to use such support in priority.