Increased security: from April 1, social pensions will be indexed by 6.1%

From April 1, social pensions in Russia will be indexed by 6.1%. According to the head of the Ministry of Labor, Anton Kotyakov, the department has already developed a corresponding draft government decree.

“Indexation will increase the level of pension provision for almost 4 million pensioners, of which about 3.2 million are recipients of social pensions,” RIA Novosti quoted Kotyakova as saying.

Social pensions are received by those who, due to various circumstances, have not earned the length of service necessary to receive a retirement pension.

According to the head of the Ministry of Labor, the size of indexation is determined taking into account the growth rate of the living wage of pensioners in 2019.

Along with social pensions, pension payments will increase for servicemen who have undergone military service on the call and pensions of participants in the Great Patriotic War.

The increase will also affect the pensions of citizens awarded the sign “Resident of the besieged Leningrad”, and the pensions of those affected by radiation or man-made disasters.

According to the minister, indexation expenses will amount to 2.41 billion rubles. per month, or 21.7 billion rubles. until the end of this year.

Based on the materials of the Pension Fund, the increase in social pensions planned for April will be the most significant in recent years. In 2019, these payments were indexed by 2%, in 2018 - by 2.9%, and in 2017 - by 1.5%.

Recall that the importance of pension provision with regular indexation was expressed by Vladimir Putin. In a message to the Federal Assembly, the head of state proposed a number of amendments to the Constitution, including those related to pension issues.

“There is not enough money, there are many priorities, pensioners will wait”: if we fix the need for indexation in the Constitution, then no one will ever say so in the future. The government will be obliged to index pensions, or it will be a violation of the Constitution with all the ensuing consequences, ”Putin said then.

Subsequently, it became known that the clause on the indexation of pensions was included in the presidential bill amending the Main Document.

“It is proposed to supplement Article 75 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation with provisions establishing ... guarantees for the compulsory indexation of pensions, social benefits and other social benefits, as well as the basic principles of universal pension provision,” the explanatory note to the bill says. The State Duma supported the document in first reading on January 23.

Indexation of payments for working retirees

Earlier, the Ministry of Labor paid attention to the lack of indexation of pensions among working pensioners. Recall that under the current legislation, only payments to unemployed pensioners are indexed. This procedure has been in force since 2016. The head of the Ministry of Labor Kotyakov spoke about the current situation with the indexation of pensions.

“During the period of their activity, they are charged with the appropriate insurance ratios to increase their pensions. At the time of retirement, these citizens receive all the accumulated indexation, ”the minister said during an extended meeting of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy. His words are quoted by RIA Novosti.

Soon after, it became known that a bill on indexation of pensions for working retirees, submitted by Senator Vasily Ikonnikov, was submitted to the State Duma for consideration.

In an explanatory note to the document, he expressed the opinion that the lack of indexation of pensions is unfair to working pensioners.

“Since in the course of carrying out their labor activities, they counted on the future payment of an insurance pension to them, regularly paying the appropriate insurance contributions,” the document reads.

The author of the document also noted that the majority of working pensioners receive low salaries, which leads to the so-called “labor poverty”.

“The wages of most workers who have reached retirement age are low, which is confirmed by the existence of the phenomenon of“ labor poverty ”in Russia, so they are forced to rely on pension payments to maintain living standards,” the document says.

The senator explained the expediency of the changes proposed by him in a number of circumstances, including the expected surplus of the federal budget in 2020 in the amount of 876.1 billion rubles.

To date, the document has received a negative opinion of the Russian government. The Cabinet of Ministers pointed out the need for additional justification of the measures proposed by the senator.