State Social Allowances for some categories of citizens. The respective increases came into force starting with January 1, 2020. Also, the amount of aid for the cold period of the year, which is granted to disadvantaged families, was increased from 350 to 500 MDL.67. The People's Advocate appreciates the improvement of the normative framework in the part related to the process of reviewing the old-age pensions established until January 1, 2019, which is carried out in relation to the cumulative contribution period after the realization of the right to oldage pension68. Also, following the amendments made in Article 13 of Law no. 156/1998 on the public pension system69, starting with 2020, on October 1, there will be indexed pensions whose amount on that date does not exceed the subsistence minimum for persons over the retirement age, calculated for the first semester of the current year. However, despite the effort made, the amount of the minimum pension for retirement, which, on April 1, 2019, amounted to 1079.33 MDL70, is below the minimum subsistence level established for retirees (in the first semester 2019 - 1726.5 MDL71) and covers only 62.5% of it. Another positive aspect is related to the amendment to Law no. 156 of 14.10.1998 on the public pension system, which consists in excluding the domicile from the conditions for establishing the pension. However, this does not ensure the transfer of the pension to the person's state of residence. The lack of a pension application procedure other than the one established by law (filing the application with the territorial social insurance body from the last place of residence in the Republic of Moldova) and the lack of a transfer mechanism on the territory of the state of residence does not exempt the right holder / the beneficiary of the need to travel to the Republic of Moldova, in order to submit the application for establishing the right or the extension of the pension payment and generates additional related expenses. It should also be noted that the condition of domicile was not excluded from the eligibility criteria to benefit from the child raising allowance until reaching the age of 3 years old (Art. 28 para. (1) letter c) of Law 289 / 2004), as recommended by the European Committee of Social 67 Decision of the Government of the Republic of Moldova no. 578 of 27.11.2019, in force since 01.11.2019; Law no. 168 of 06.12.2019 for the amendment of Article 33 of Law no. 156/1998 on the public pension system; 69 Law no. 162 of 06.12.2019 for the amendment of some legislative acts, in force since 01.01.2020; 70 Decision of the Government of the Republic of Moldova no. 186 of 15.03.2019 on the indexation of social insurance benefits and state social benefits; 71 https://statistica.gov.md/newsview.php?l=ro&idc=168&id=6466 68 44