The elderly in Moldova will receive financial assistance worth 3 mln lei overall on the occasion of the International Day of Older Persons celebrated on October 1. The assistance will be offered according to the necessities, but will be not lower than 100 lei for a recipient, Minister of Social Protection, Family and Child Galina Balmos told a news conference on Monday. According to the minister, the size of pensions is the most serious problem faced by the elderly people. Though the pensions were increased by 20.7% on 1 April 2007, the rise is not sufficient. The average old age pension is 552 lei and the minimum pension - 408 lei. Besides the financial difficulties, the elderly are confronted by another problem – the loneliness, Galina Balmos says. The phenomenon of migration is one of the factors that lead to the ageing of the Moldovan population, alongside the low birth rate. Galina Cobitev, head of the Social Insurance Division, said that though the persons that work abroad can contribute money to the pension fund, very few of them pay the contributions fixed by the state. Currently, the authorities are conducting talks over bilateral agreements between Moldova and the states that home Moldovan migrants workers, which will enable the migrants to receive pensions from the state where they worked. In another connection, the Minister of Social Protection, Family and Child said that the pensioners should be provided with employment. The elderly make up a large part of the Moldovan population and the society cannot afford to exclude them from the labor market, Galina Balmos considers. Over 451,000 persons receive old age pensions in Moldova at present. Some 119,000 of these are older than 70.