Russian President Putin: the government will raise pensions above the actual inflation rate
Vladimir Putin. Photo: Sputnik / Reuters
During a large press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin answered a question about plans to index pensions above the level of actual inflation. The event was broadcast on its YouTube channel by TASS.
According to the head of state, the government will do everything to fulfill the promises of previous years regarding pensions.
The politician promised that in 2022 decisions will be made on pensions to the security bloc in order to equalize the incomes of those who work in law enforcement and security agencies in general.
Law on freezing funded pension
On December 21, Putin signed a law freezing the funded part of Russians' pensions until 2024. According to it, an approach similar to 2014-2023 is established for accounting for insurance premiums for compulsory pension insurance.
At the beginning of the month, such a bill was approved by the State Duma. The financial and economic justification for the document noted that the extension of the freeze period would help reduce the transfer from the state budget to the Pension Fund budget by 772.9 billion rubles.
The funded pension has been frozen since 2014. That is, contributions to the funded part of the pension in the amount of six percent of the salary are sent to the insurance part for payments to current pensioners. From the very beginning, it was assumed that the freeze would be a one-time, but from that moment on, the rule has invariably been extended.
Previously, Russian citizens could independently decide whether to direct funds to form savings or transfer them to the insurance part.
New Year's pension
The State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs proposed to pay the New Year's pension to Russians annually. It is noted that inflation this year could reach nine percent, and this will negatively affect the income of older Russians. The committee stressed that on the eve of each New Year, pensioners will have to spend a lot on buying gifts and organizing a holiday.
Pensions themselves are small, there is no indexation for working pensioners, unequal recalculation for non-working pensioners, incomplete indexation for military pensioners. Previously, there were already such one-time New Year's Eve payments to pensioners, the decision on them was made by Vladimir Putin
Yaroslav NilovHead of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs
The authors of the initiative believe that it is worth establishing the payment in the amount of the pension received by the citizens of Russia as of the date of the provision of this pension payment to them. It is specified that the source of payments will be the federal budget. According to preliminary data, next year 786.2 billion rubles may be required for these purposes.
Conditions for receiving a pension
The Pension Fund of Russia recalled the conditions for receiving a pension next year. Thus, women from 56.5 years old and men from 61.5 years will have the right to an insurance pension.
Marina Tarasova, Deputy Manager of the PFR Branch for Moscow and the Moscow Region, emphasized that in order to receive an old-age pension, it is not enough to reach the specified age, and a Russian must also have the necessary length of service and a certain amount of the individual pension coefficient.
According to Tarasova, if they are not enough, the pension will be postponed for the period necessary to comply with all the conditions. If it is not possible to achieve them within five years, then the citizen will be assigned a social pension.
Losses of Russian pensioners
On average, Russian pensioners were not paid in addition about 90 thousand rubles. State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Oleg Smolin said that according to the law, annually pensions are indexed in accordance with the rate of inflation. He cited the example of 2015, when inflation was about 13 percent. Then a special decision was made – since 2016, non-working pensioners have their pensions indexed by 4 percent instead of 13.
We were not lazy and calculated how much a pensioner lost with an average pension due to the fact that he was underpaid by nine percent all these years. So the result is as follows: over 90 thousand rubles
Oleg Smolin State Duma deputy from the Communist Party
The Ministry of Labor reported that, taking into account the indexation of pensions in January of this year in the amount of 6.3 percent and a lump sum payment, the size of pensions increased by 11.1 percent, which exceeded the current inflation in 2021. The department noted that additional proposals are currently being prepared for the indexation of pensions in 2022 at the end of 2021.
Deputy Chairman of the Social Committee of the Federation Council Elena Bibikova in an interview with RIA Novosti said that the level of indexation of pensions will be determined by the government, based on the growth of inflation at the end of the year. The senator believes that the decision to index pensions based on inflation can be formalized by a bill. According to her, in this case, the senators “are ready to consider it promptly.”
