The week began with the Ministry of Health pleased Russians with the information that the average life expectancy in the country had reached a historical maximum - 72.5 years. In ten years she has grown by almost seven years. In 2005, the average life expectancy in the country was only slightly above 65 years.
Rosstat notes a decrease in mortality rates in all age categories and a decrease in the number of deaths from major causes, including respiratory diseases, alcohol poisoning and tuberculosis.
Now this information has been “supplemented” by forecasts about stagnation in pension payments. The result was that “people will live long, but poorly.”
The main reason reduction of pensions will be a refusal to index them for working pensioners. There is also a macroeconomic factor - inflation, which, according to forecasts for 2018, will accelerate. Reportedly, the forecast was discussed by the commission on budget projections, and the head of government, Dmitry Medvedev, gave instructions to clarify it in connection with changes in the economy. The Ministry of Economic Development claims that the publication of the forecast will take place only after its approval by the government.
There are about 43 million pensioners in Russia. Two thirds of them continue labor activity. The government decided to leave the pensions of working pensioners without indexation last year. Instead, the Cabinet of Ministers promised to compensate for the lost funds after the pensioner stops working.
In the spring, Medvedev instructed the relevant departments to work on the issue of returning to indexation. And in April, during his speech in the State Duma, the prime minister said that the issue of indexing pensions for working pensioners and disabled people was not closed, and promised that the government would soon voice its position. After this, in May, the government was instructed to further study this issue.
Experts note that by 2027 the number of people of retirement age (if it is not changed) will increase by approximately 6 million people. At the same time, a reduction in the working-age population by 7-8 million is also expected. In this regard, they note, if the distribution part of the pension system does not change, pension income, measured in units of wages of workers, will likely decline.
The main risk factor for a decline in pension income is the weakening social function states. In conditions where life expectancy is growing and the requirements for its quality are increasing, this poses serious problems. Older people are generally active citizens - both socially and politically. And those times when the needs of the elderly were exhausted basic set services are a thing of the past. People who received high incomes are now retiring; most of them were in the shadows. A serious decline in the standard of living of these social groups could seriously hit the ratings of the most popular politicians.
The solution to the pension problem is known, but unpopular. It involves raising the retirement age, as well as priority indexation of pensions for non-workers. An increase in budget expenditures to finance pension payments is not discussed.
Earlier, the head of the Pension Fund of Russia (PFR), Anton Drozdov, said that this year the goal of bringing pensions to the regional living wage Almost 100 billion rubles will be allocated from the state budget. According to him, transfers will be sent to 69 regions of Russia, and 3.9 million pensioners will receive an increase.
Payments will be sent mainly to regional pensioners, because the level of pensions in the regions of Russia is lower than, for example, in Moscow, experts noted. Although the current year turned out to be quite “successful” for Russian pensioners - they received lump sum payment at 5 thousand rubles. in February, and the indexation level of pensions for 2017 will be 4.5%, which is higher than the official inflation rate (3.7%).
At the beginning of August, it was reported that pensioners in the Russian Federation remain one of the population groups with an increased risk of poverty. More than half (54%) of them do not have enough money for food and clothing.
So, starting from this month, the period for paying the funded part of the pension will be 240 months, and not 234, as before. Thus, the period has been extended by six months, and women born in 1967 who retire after 2022 will be among the first to feel the consequences of changes in pension legislation.
ON THE TOPIC
As economic observer Denis Elakhovsky reported, first of all, changes in the funded part of pensions will be felt by beneficiaries, military personnel, and residents of the northern regions. "The majority will feel these changes after 2022 - and only if retirement age will not be increased,” he said. At the same time, the economist noted that with such a calculation system, the pensions of Russians will decrease in real terms.
In Russia, the old-age pension consists of insurance and funded parts. Insurance pension is calculated based on pension points, which are annually assigned to the employee taking into account his insurance contributions to the compulsory pension insurance system. Regarding funded pension, then non-state pension funds and management companies are responsible for it, the efficiency of whose management of financial resources determines the size of the funded pension of Russians.
Earlier, the government reported that citizens’ pensions would be indexed in full in 2017, for which the corresponding funds were allocated to the state budget. The exact indexation size is currently unknown. However, according to the Cabinet of Ministers, its size depends on the level of inflation. The indexation itself should be carried out in February. It must be emphasized that only non-working pensioners will receive it.
It is also worth noting that the retirement age for state and municipal employees began to rise in the new year. It will reportedly increase by six months each year, reaching 63 for women and 65 for men.
In addition, pensioners, already on January 9, began to receive the promised one-time payment of five thousand rubles. At the same time, citizens do not need to write any special applications to the pension fund to receive this money.
Question to the expert: “Why did my pension come in less than usual?”
Yes, the pension comes in less. Yes, for some reason I was charged more for gas. Yes, the percentages are also not the same. So, this is not the first day we’ve been living, it’s time to get used to it, in the second half of our 50s.
It happens, as they say, that government agencies make mistakes with their accruals. That’s why you need to set yourself up to “communicate” with employees of the Pension Fund (PF).
Communicate, no matter what, no matter the fact that there is no time for fruitless conversations, no matter the fact that you still won’t achieve anything.
Well, first of all, why don’t you achieve it? Yes, because “they” still turn out to be right in the overwhelming majority of cases, we must admit this, hand on heart. Life has shown this more than once - and I, for my part, simply don’t know exactly the conditions, I don’t know that they have changed, I don’t “know how to count.”
And, secondly, you won’t succeed because they know the laws better, and the laws for PF workers are to protect the honor of their uniform. Unfortunately, they rarely consider helping people an honor. That's why the conversations are fruitless.
This is not a very pleasant conversation and we have a conversation almost like in the Pension Fund.
However, what should you do when your pension comes less than expected?
- Check to see if it was bigger last month. If it was, it means that this time it was simply reduced by the amount of the overpayment. In this department, after all, nothing is lost or forgotten. At the same time, check yourself - by how much you were overpaid in the past, by how much you were underpaid this month. Yes, it’s all about psychology - we quickly forget the good things (in in this case overpayment), but we remember the bad “until the end of time” (we have underpayment).
- You will most likely have to go to the Foundation, but not empty-handed. If the pension is paid through a bank card with all accruals recorded, first go to the bank and get a printout of the movement of money on the card - this is already a document, after all, as the hero of “The Irony of Fate or Enjoy Your Bath” used to say.
Then we go to the Fund and find out whether any deductions have been made from the pension. Remember if you signed last month any loan agreements, whether you signed other papers under which you agreed to repay debts from your pension account.
If you don’t show up at the bank (maybe you just don’t know about the existence of your loan), but should, then the bank, without your knowledge, can go to court, which decides to automatically write off the debt from your pension. There is only one conclusion - you need to, you need to go to the bank and keep the situation under control.
Only in the Pension Fund can one, in the end, find out whether any changes have been introduced to the laws recently. Fund employees often cannot cope with these changes, much less pensioners.
If you still want to get to the truth, then you will have to write a statement to the Pension Fund asking them to understand the current situation. Most likely, the statement will not be of any use, but it is necessary to keep the Fund’s employees “on their toes”, they must constantly remind them of whose money they are building their mansions worth tens of millions (remember the example of Kaliningrad).
When we say that you need to clearly understand the situation, we mean the following two points.
Firstly, you need to know exactly according to which your pension is calculated. These formulas contain many constants that depend on the year of calculation. Everything, everything should be explained to you in detail, not by a PF employee, but by your own mathematician grandson, let this be practice for him to pass the Unified State Exam.
Secondly, you need to know exactly the estimated amount of the pension and compare it with the minimum - this is 8,450 rubles as of July 2017 (and this must also be taken into account that the amount may change over time, thank God, so far upward).
Thirdly, you need to know exactly the minimum pension amount - it is always more, well, not less, than the total for the country.
From here there are two conclusions - two situations, given that the federal pension coincides with the regional one. If it doesn’t match, it’s smaller, then it’s just the regional one that’s involved in the calculations, you’re lucky with the region. And who in Russia is lucky with the region - only Muscovites, well, maybe a couple of other richer regions. In Moscow minimum pension– 11428 rub.
First situation. Your calculated pension is less than the federal one - you must receive your calculated and additional payment to the federal one from a special Fund. But the fact is that, perhaps, the “clerical souls” in your Pension Fund are for some reason expecting a special application from you for additional payment to the federal pension. Well, you’ll have to write, it’s not a lot of work, but you need to find out everything personally, even a “grandson” won’t help here.
Second. Your calculated pension is greater than the federal one - you should legally receive your calculated one and say thank you to your “grandson”.
In general, there is only one recipe for solving the question of why your pension was underpaid - go and deal with the Pension Fund. Deal with it calmly, politely, but always knowledgeably, with a preliminary assessment of the situation.
Finally, evaluate what this underpayment is. Only 5-10 rubles! It’s also unpleasant, of course, but you pay 20 rubles for a trolleybus to the Fund or Bank. And that in order to get your rightful ten, you are ready to spend 20, as well as time, effort and nerves, which cannot be valued with any money. In general, we are still talking about the same thing - we think carefully and consider before taking any actions in defiance of a state institution called the Pension Fund.
The trade union explained why, despite the indexation of pension supplements for certain categories of pensioners, these supplements may actually decrease from May 2017.
We are talking about increasing pension supplements for civil aviation pilots and certain categories of coal industry workers in 2017. The government did not make a decision specifically on the indexation of additional payments, but this indexation is a consequence of the adoption of the government decree “On approval of the average monthly wage growth index in the Russian Federation for 2016.” The draft resolution was published in March 2017 on the federal legal information portal.
Supplement to pension
The increase in the amount of additional payments to the pensions of former pilots in 2017 is still in question
As reported in the explanatory note to the government resolution, according to the law, the amount of additional payment to pensions for flight crew members of civil aviation aircraft and certain categories of employees of coal industry organizations is determined using the annual growth index of average monthly wages in the Russian Federation approved by the government.
The government intends to approve this index based on Rosstat data in the near future. In 2016, the average salary, according to official statistics, increased by 107.8%, respectively, the growth index was 1.078 or a percentage of 7.8%. It is by this 7.8% that the amount of additional payments to pensions for pilots and coal miners can be increased. Read more about this.
However, the Russian Flight Personnel Trade Union believes that an increase in additional payments to pilots’ pensions may not take place in 2017. On the contrary, there is a possibility that the amount of additional payments will even decrease.
The website for pensioners “My Years” () publishes a corresponding explanation from the vice-president of the Trade Union of Flight Personnel of Russia V.P. Vechirko.
On the growth of average monthly wages in the Russian Federation and additional payment to pensions
In the formula for calculating the amount of additional payment to the pension in accordance with Federal law"About additional social security members of flight crews of civil aviation aircraft" and the Federal Law "On additional social security for certain categories of workers in the coal industry" apply the average monthly salary in the Russian Federation. Its value changes annually by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation for these two laws. In 2015, the Resolution was signed on July 18, and in 2016. April 29.
Based on the information received, the draft Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation “On approval of the growth index of average monthly wages in the Russian Federation for 2016” was published on the federal portal of legal information.
According to Federal service state statistics, the growth index of the average monthly nominal accrued wages of employees of organizations in the Russian Federation for 2016 compared to 2015, according to preliminary data, amounted to 107.8% or 1.078. This indicator (equal to a percentage of 7.8%) will be used to calculate the amount of monthly pension supplements in 2017 for former flight crew members of civil aviation aircraft and coal miners.
Currently, the formula for calculating the pension supplement uses the average salary in the Russian Federation in the amount of 16,547.7 rubles. According to the draft resolution, the new value will be 16547.7 x 1.078 = 17838.42 rubles.
The new average salary in the Russian Federation will be applied when calculating the additional payment to pensions for May, June, and July, subject to the adoption of the Resolution no later than the end of March or the beginning of April.
Some media reported that former pilots and coal miners will receive an increase in their pension supplement in 2017 due to an increase in the average salary in the country. This is not true. I have repeatedly explained that changes in the average salary in the Russian Federation do not affect the amount of additional payment to the pension since the collection coefficient is less than one. But requests for further clarification continue to come.
When using the increased average salary in the Russian Federation in the formula, we will receive overestimated required amounts that must theoretically be paid and an underestimated collection ratio. And the collection coefficient is obtained by dividing the collected funds by those required to pay all pilot pensioners.
The amount of the pension supplement directly depends only on the funds received in the previous quarter and the number of recipients of the pension supplement.
An increase in the average salary in the Russian Federation only expands the scope of the possibility of increasing the maximum amount of additional payment to a pension, provided that there are sufficient funds to finance these payments.
Currently, the possible maximum payment is 65,032.35 rubles. (with 75 years of service and K = 5), and will be 65032.35 x 1.078 = 70104.9 rubles.
At smaller values of special length of service and the individual coefficient, these maximum possible payments will be less. It is not possible to provide financially for the amount of such payments due to a lack of funds, since 41,780 people receive additional payments to their pensions, and contributions come from the wage fund of approximately 14,000 - 15,000 flight crew members of civil aviation aircraft.
As you know, the exact amount of the surcharge is obtained by multiplying the maximum possible amount by the collection coefficient. For February, March and April, Ksbor = 0.280675673. If we make two calculations of additional payments to pensions with the same collection of funds and the same number of recipients of additional payments, but using the old and new average salaries in the Russian Federation, we will get the same result in both cases (additional payments to pensions). Only the required funds for payments will increase and the Ksbor will decrease when applying the increased average salary in the Russian Federation.
In the USSR there were 62 thousand civil aviation flight crew members. Currently 4 times less. We are all interested in developing air transportation and increasing the number of civil aviation flight personnel. I hope this will happen, as there has been an increase in air transportation volumes.
In January 2017, contributions were received by 27% less than in January 2016. In February 2017, significantly more contributions were received (approximately the same as in October and November 2016). If the receipt of contributions in March does not compensate for the January failure, then the additional payment to the pension will decrease from May.
From 01/01/2017, the powers to administer (control over the accrual and payment) of contributions were transferred from the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation to the federal tax service. 02/06/2017 PLC of Russia sent a letter to the tax service with a request to verify the correctness of the calculation and timely payment of contributions by organizations that employ the labor of flight crew members of civil aviation aircraft.
Vice-President of the Russian Flight Crew Trade Union V.P. Vechirko
The document directly states a decrease in 2018 by 0.7%, and in the next two years by 0.6%. With a pension of 10 thousand rubles, it will be 70 and 60, respectively. The rationale for this trend is the refusal of indexation state benefit working pensioners. According to data, their number is almost 10 million Russians.
Rising inflation will also affect the reduction of pensions for older working people. The pace will be higher than in 2017. When planning an increase or reduction in benefits, they are guided by the indicators of the previous year. For now, preliminary forecasts are being given. A number of representatives of related departments confirm the information, citing technical indicators that may change.
Another point that officials pay attention to is that it is impossible to mix the provision of different categories of pensioners: those employed and those not. For those who work, their income comes from pensions and wages.
They calculate financial assistance from the state differently. An increase in overall work experience affects the number of points and the amount of benefits, which may not increase much. Therefore, it is not the pensions of working people that are reduced, but the total income when inflation rises and the amount of earnings remains unchanged. The trend is common only to a small number of people.
The macro forecast presents the prospects for income growth in the next three years.
| 2018 | 2,1 |
| 2019 | 1,1 |
| 2020 | 1,2 |
The problem of the next 10 years
Analysts are worried. The demographic peak in birth rates in the 70s is having an impact now. In the next decade, there will be a sharp increase in pensioners by 6 million people. A drop in the working-age population by 7-8 million will also have an impact.
The consequences will be a decrease in the standard of living of unprotected categories of Russian citizens and increased stratification of society by level of income. It will be difficult for the pension system, the distribution part of which will suffer.
Experts plan to address the issue of future instability in different ways:
- raise the retirement age so that the percentage of Russian residents who will retire is reduced;
- strengthening targeted payments in the insurance system;
- indexation – increasing pensions for unemployed people.
Experts are not yet considering another option to correct the situation – increasing taxes.
The ministry's monitoring of reductions in pensions for working citizens shows only an average indicator. In particular, payments to pensioners and those who do not work, and those who continue to earn an extra penny, have decreased.
The conclusion of the economics department’s assumptions is that there is work ahead to solve the problem of indexation for working citizens. The issue will be discussed at a meeting of the State Duma, when they will consider the draft budget of the Russian Federation and pension fund for 2018.
The size of the pension of the country's residents
At the beginning of 2017, RGSU specialists conducted a survey of Russians. People were asked about the size of their pension.
- Every third person considers a retirement benefit of 15 to 20 thousand rubles acceptable.
- Most believe that a pension amount of 40% of the existing salary would suit them.
Pension increase in 2017
This summer, the government promised to index state support in proportion to the increase in inflation last year. The exception is working pensioners. In February and April, the insurance part of the benefit and payments to it increased. The average old-age pension is 13,649 rubles.
