“Legal protection is increasing”: the State Duma adopted in the first reading an amendment to the Constitution on the indexation of pensions

The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill to amend the Constitution, proposed earlier by Russian President Vladimir Putin. One of the changes contained in the document is the consolidation of pension indexation in the main law of the country.

Co-chair of the working group on preparing proposals to amend the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Taliya Khabrieva, during the discussion of the bill, explained that indexation will also apply to working pensioners. The corresponding question about the payments of this category of citizens to her was asked by the first deputy head of the Duma committee on labor, social policy and affairs of veterans Mikhail Tarasenko.

“The rule itself is formulated without exemptions, and only concretization of order in federal law is possible. So the answer is: indexed, ”said Khabrieva.

She also referred to the text of the amendment to the Constitution: “In the Russian Federation, a pension system for citizens is being formed on the basis of the principles of universality, justice and solidarity of generations and its effective functioning is supported, and the size of pensions is regularly indexed in the manner established by federal law.”

“This means that not only legal protection is being raised, but it is a question of the stability of a social standard. Why am I focusing on this? Because the possession of the right and social welfare is combined, ”added Khabrieva.

Justice restoration

Nikita Maslennikov, head of the Finance and Economics department at the Institute for Contemporary Development, said in an interview with RT that the amendments to the main law regarding pension payments are “absolutely fair and consistent with the implementation of constitutional guarantees.”

“I think all this is very fair. By and large, non-indexation of pensions to working pensioners was in direct violation of human rights, weakened constitutional guarantees. So this step is quite logical and looks exhaustive. It remains only to welcome him, ”said Maslennikov.

Recall that the indexation of pensions for working pensioners was suspended in 2016. Moreover, after the formation of the new government under the leadership of Mikhail Mishustin, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR) announced that they expect the new head of the Pension Fund of Russia Maxim Topilin to resume indexation of pensions for working pensioners.

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Nikita Maslennikov notes that introducing changes to the fundamental law is only the first step, then it will take time to work out ways to implement the new norms.

“As for the sources of financing, this is an additional headache for the government. It is no secret that the FIU and the social bloc gave an estimate of how much pensioners might need for pensioners to index pensions in 2020. The price of the issue is over 300 billion rubles. Perhaps all this will not start working immediately, but the deadline will be clear soon, ”the expert concluded.

Recall that in October 2019, Anton Drozdov, who was at that time the head of the FIU, said that in order to resume indexation of pensions, working pensioners in 2020 would need 368 billion rubles.

Stimulation of retirees

Head of the Department of Financial Management G.V. Plekhanova Konstantin Ordov, for his part, expressed the opinion that a working pensioner, like any other employee, brings income to the state in taxes, so that he, in fact, ensures the indexation of his pension.

“For the working pensioner, the employer deducts taxes to all social funds. So this citizen, even when retired, continues to form the revenue side of the pension fund. If a pensioner is ready to continue to work and makes contributions to all funds, he will definitely compensate for the entire increase in pension, ”Ordov said in an interview with RT.

In his opinion, the indexation of payments to working retirees will stimulate them and make them feel the recognition of their merits by the state.

“This (lack of indexation. - RT ) will not give pensioners a strange feeling that pension is not something they have earned, but some kind of social handout. Such concrete examples best show the attitude of the state towards pensioners, ”he stressed.

Recall, for non-working pensioners, the pension is indexed every year on the first of January. According to the Ministry of Labor, the average annual old-age pension in 2019 in Russia grew to 15.5 thousand rubles. Earlier, the head of the FIU Anton Drozdov said that by 2022 the average size of pensions in Russia will increase to 18,290 rubles.