On Thursday, January 20, the State Duma in the third, final reading adopted amendments to the legislation on the indexation of pensions above the inflation rate.

In accordance with the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin, payments will be increased by 8.6% in 2022, according to the website of the lower house of parliament.

“Everything must be done to ensure that social obligations to people are fulfilled… This decision is designed to protect our citizens in the face of increased inflation: to compensate pensioners for the additional costs that have arisen due to rising prices,” State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel.

According to him, the norm will have retroactive effect and will work from January 1.

The budget has the necessary funds for this, Volodin stressed.

Taking into account indexation, the average old-age insurance pension for non-working citizens will be 18,984 rubles.

In total, the authorities will allocate an additional 172.7 billion rubles for these purposes.

The relevant data was previously presented by the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the country Anton Kotyakov.

Russians will be able to receive an indexed pension in February.

Also, citizens will be provided with monetary compensation for the January payment.

This was told to RT by a member of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs Svetlana Bessarab.

“In order to fulfill the President's order as quickly as possible, we have applied a special mechanism: amendments have been made to the law on pensions for the minority peoples of the North.

This does not contradict the regulations of the State Duma, but allows indexing as quickly as possible.

Therefore, in the near future, the pension will be indexed to the real amount of inflation,” Bessarab added.

Note that initially from January 1, 2022, pensions in Russia were increased by only 5.9%.

The value turned out to be significantly lower than real inflation, which at the end of 2021 amounted to 8.4%.

Vladimir Putin announced the need to index pensions to real inflation back in November 2021.

According to him, the authorities strictly adhered to this rule over the past few years, and in the current conditions, "it would be wrong to deviate from this principle."

In December, during a big press conference, the Russian leader again reminded that the indexation of pensions should take into account the actual rate of price growth, and instructed the government to work out appropriate measures.

On January 12, after the release of preliminary data on inflation for 2021, the head of state proposed to increase payments at a faster pace - by 8.6%.

“Decisions taken earlier will not allow people to cover the costs associated with the increased inflation of last year.

Therefore, I propose ... to index pensions slightly above inflation, ”Putin said.

  • December 23, 2021. Russian President Vladimir Putin at the big annual press conference at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall

  • RIA News

  • © Mikhail Metzel

As the president noted, the issue is of a social nature and concerns millions of citizens.

According to the Ministry of Labor, in total pensions will be indexed for 30.8 million Russians.

“I think the PFR will be able to quickly recalculate the level of payments.

At the same time, indexation for subsequent years, up to 2024, is simultaneously increasing.

This allows us to count on the fact that Russians of retirement age will maintain their usual way of life and will not be forced to cut their spending on medicines, food, recreation and leisure,” Svetlana Bessarab emphasized.

As Georgy Ostapkovich, director of the Center for Market Research at the HSE Institute for Statistical Research and Economics of Knowledge, noted in an interview with RT, during the pandemic, pensioners have become one of the most vulnerable categories of citizens.

Against this background, the actions of the authorities can be a serious help for the elderly.

“This is a social maneuver, but we still position ourselves as a welfare state.

Indexation, which was originally envisaged in the draft budget, turned out to be lower than inflation, which would cause the real pension to fall.

The president’s initiative makes it possible to improve the effective demand of the population and remove the inflationary canopy from pensioners, ”Ostapkovich emphasized.

According to the latest estimates from Rosstat, in the first two weeks of January, annual inflation in Russia further accelerated to 8.6%.

In Georgy Ostapkovich's opinion, in spring the growth rate of consumer prices should reach a plateau, after which they will start to slow down.

However, if inflation continues to grow under the influence of various factors, the authorities may take additional measures to support pensioners, the expert believes.

“For example, one-time payments of 10 thousand rubles can be initiated, as was already the case in 2021.

So far, there have been no statements on this matter, but it all depends on the dynamics of inflation, ”the expert concluded.