Azerbaijan: Pensioners Facing Poverty

Sevindik Mamedov, 70, worked in the chemical industry for 48 years. Although the equivalent of 40 US dollars he now receives in pension payments each month leaves him better off than many of his contemporaries, he still finds life a struggle.

“About a quarter of this goes on energy bills, and the rest doesn’t go very far. We haven’t tasted meat or milk in a long time. We can only afford fruit in summer, and then only the cheapest kinds,” he told IWPR.

“The years spent working with chemicals undermined my health, but I can’t afford any treatment.”

The government of Azerbaijan has introduced limited increases in welfare payments over the last few months. But analysts and pensioners say that, given drastic hikes in the cost of living, the current system still leaves hundreds of thousands of elderly people facing poverty.

According to officials from the Republic Social Welfare Fund, Azerbaijan’s population of 8,000,000 includes some 1,300,000 pensioners. Around 250,000 – nearly 20 per cent – of these people live on the minimum government pension, raised by President Ilham Aliev on December 30 last year to just 25 dollars per month.

Economic analyst Rasmia Ashrafova points out that this minimum pension level – like those found in neighbouring Armenia and Georgia – is less than 27 per cent of the average working wage, well below the accepted norm in the industrialised world.

Another economic analyst, Allahyar Muradov, added that this minimum pension is far from enough to live on.

“While the minimum [cost of consumer goods] is 98 dollars a month, and the official poverty line stands at 57 dollars a month, a pensioner receiving 25 dollars a month from the state is entirely dependent on the charity of relatives,” he told IWPR.

On March 1, President Aliev announced an increase in the additional welfare payments available to certain groups – including orphaned children, forced migrants, the disabled and the families of “shahids”, or national heroes – from between four and 20 dollars per month to between five and 22 dollars.

And since 2001, the government has also been paying cost-of-living allowances to 640,000 people – including 500,000 pensioners – who had previously been eligible for rebates on utilities bills and public transport.

But those who are not eligible for these payments, like 63-year-old Mira Lasinina, continue to scrape by on the minimum pension. “I receive no allowances, apparently the state thinks I don’t need any,” Lasinina told IWPR, adding that the 25 dollars she receives per month “barely covers [her] utilities bills and bread”.

Even those pensioners who do receive money towards their bills have been hard-hit by recent drastic hikes in the price of living in Azerbaijan.

Economist Allahyar Muradov told IWPR that food prices have increased 15 per cent since the beginning of this year alone.

“But that’s nothing compared to utilities price rises,” he said. “The cost of natural gas has soared seven times in four months, and electricity hikes are not far behind. Utility prices drive food price hikes, which the raise in pensions and compensations is unable to cover.”

Pensioners living in apartment blocks pay at least ten dollars a month for their utilities, he explained, while those living in low-rise private homes pay 15 dollars.

“This equals around 60 per cent of their pensions. In more socially conscious economies, if you are spending more than 50 per cent of your income on bare necessities, you are considered desperately poor,” he said.

“Most of [my] pension pays for gas and electricity,” confirmed Sona Alieva, who is disabled. “Then I take the rest to buy bread and dry it for later. Medical treatment is out of the question. I’ve already sold everything of any value in my house.”

Those who try to stave off poverty by continuing to work into old age find that, as a result, their pension payments are slashed by half – something economic analyst Jalil Guliev could be viewed as a “social injustice”.

Pensioner Maya Rasulova, a university teacher with 40 years’ experience who continues to work and earns 70 dollars a month, gets just 12 dollars each month in pension payments.

“I’ve been trying to get my teeth fixed for three years,” she told IWPR. “I need 500 dollars for treatment and dentures. How can I ever hope to get that kind of money together?”

Ogtai Khagverdiev, head of the government’s economics department, told IWPR that politicians are aware that hikes in the cost of energy have made things harder for retirees. “It is a duty of the state to raise pensions, and the government has budgeted for a raise this year,” he promised.

Isa Gambar, who heads the Musavat opposition party, believes the problem could be solved much quicker if resources were distributed fairly in Azerbaijan. “Apart from the oil revenues, the government could improve the situation greatly by simply regulating the non-oil sector correctly, bringing business out of the shadows and creating more jobs,” he said.

In a rather less sympathetic take on the problem, Azerbaijani prime minister Artur Rasizade recently suggested to television journalists that the poor should cut their consumption of expensive fresh fruit and vegetables.

Unimpressed 66-year-old pensioner Sevil Gulieva has another suggestion. “I bet Rasizade’s grandchildren eat fresh fruit and vegetables every day,” she told IWPR. “How about replacing government Mercedes with cheaper makes of car, and then sharing the difference with us?”

In the meantime, Lasinina continues to scrape by on whatever is left over after she has paid her utility bills. “As long as I can afford flour, I’ll survive,” she told IWPR. “Fruit and meat are out of the picture. I buy bones for my dogs, then I boil them and use that stock to make soup. It reminds me of the taste of meat.”

Shakhla Abusattar works for the Oil Industry Information Centre in Baku.