YEREVAN. - Cumulative pension payments, made before 1 July 2014, will be returned to the [Armenian] citizens, Artem Asatryan, Armenian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs said in the parliament on Tuesday. 

According to him, the citizens can demand the return of the payments made before 1 July 2014: prior to that the payments were considered as compulsory cumulative. Later that status was found to contradict the Armenian Constitution, this very fact entitling to demand back the payments. About 62 thousand citizens have applied for reimbursement and are expected get back the payments by 1 July 2015.

The reimbursement does not concern those payments which were made after 1 July 2014.  

The private cumulative pension reform hit a raw nerve with the citizens, who were required to pay 5 per cent of their salaries. The new reform was enforced on 1 January 2014, being suspended for three years in the private sector, following the active protests of the population.