Amendments to the Russian pension system adopted on January 1 rectify disbalance without violating the rights of citizens. Yelena Bibikova, the senator of the Pskov oblast, a member of the Federation Council committee on social policy, has visited Vestnik Kavkaza today and given details about the pension system. In her words, the old pension system required labour records of 5 years, people received pensions for 20-30 years. Social pensions (for the disabled, WWII veterans) were less valuable and were available 5 years later. Retirement pensions were split into insurance and accumulative in January 2015.
The old pension system stipulated that women could retire at the age of 55, men at 60. The labour records were extended to 6 years in January 2015, they will reach 15 years in 2025, according to Bibikova.
The main innovation of the new pension system is the coefficients, or pension points. There will have been at least 30 points by 2025.
The points consist of a numerator (payments by the employer, the 16% allocated to the pension system from the salary) and a denominator (insurance fees). The sum was 624,000 rubles in 2014, it is 711,000 rubles this year. It is the maximum annual salary, a maximum of 16% were divided by over 7 until 2015 and by 10 in 2025.
Bibikova explained that a salary of 30,000 rubles a month means 3 pension points a year. People making less than 1 pension point a year by evading taxes will need to work for 30 years. The senator called evasion of payments to the Pension Fund catastrophic. 20 out of 60 million working people pay nothing to the pension system. Pension points will still be given to people aged over 80 years, disabled of the 1st group, children, the unemployed. A woman taking care of her first child will get 1.8 points a year, she will get 3.6 points for the second, 5.4 points for the third. Military service is rewarded with 1.8 points a year, clarifies the senator.
Pensions will consist of three wallets: one formed by the law until January 2002, the second by the laws from January 2002 to Janyary 2015, the third from January 2015.
Bibikova gave details about the retirement age. In her words, it will not be raised until 2030. She noted that one of the criteria was the life expectancy of people. In Western countries, the average life expectancy is up to 80 years. The expectancy in Russia is 70 years. The retirement would not be lowered either. Furthermore, people will be allowed to raise their retirement age, gaining additional pension bonuses.
People born after 1967 will be allowed to exploit the accumulative pension system. Employers will pay 22% of employees' salaries to the Pension Fund. 6% of the sum is fixed and totals 4,500 rubles. The remaining 16% will be allocated to the pension capital. Bibikova said that freezing of the accumulative pension system was essential to solve problems in the system. She added that there had been over 150 private pension funds with different levels of stability. 24 such funds have entered the system of state guarantees, they hold 84% of all assets. They remain frozen.
The senator reminded that the accumulative part is voluntary. People need to decide whether to use the system or not until the end of the year. Young people reaching adult age have five years to think about it before making their choices.
Concluding the interview, the senator expressed her feelings about the North Caucasus. Bibikova said that she loved the region. The people there, in her words, are very friendly, hospitable and respectful, the nature there is great. The senator made particular mention of the beauty of Elbrus and Mineralniye Vody.
