Make life a little easier: how to make indexation of pensions fair

Vladimir Garmatyuk, Vologda

On October 12, 2021, Putin, speaking to deputies of the State Duma of the VIII convocation, said: "I repeat that our main enemy is the low incomes of our citizens, millions of our people". It really is. To slightly improve the situation with low incomes, I propose the following.

In Russia, due to the difference in laws, old-age pensioners receive different pensions.

The pensions of civil servants exceed the pensions of civil servants by 2-10 times, which is of course unfair, since the work of civil servants is no more, and often less important and responsible, than the work of representatives of many civil professions. But this is a separate issue and, in order not to delve into the topic, now is not about that.

Further. Almost all civil pensions granted since 2015 in Russia (after the financial oil crisis of 2014 and changes in pension legislation with the introduction of a cutoff factor of 1.2) are less than the average value calculated for the country and, as a rule, differ little from the subsistence minimum.

For example, the average estimated pension in Russia in 2022 is 18,521 rubles, in 2021 - 16,800 rubles. etc.

After payment for housing and communal services, many civil pensions become less than the subsistence level and, apart from the simplest products, nothing can be purchased on them. Buying new clothes, shoes, inserting a filling and so on is already a problem for people.

Pensions for non-working pensioners in Russia are annually indexed to inflation by the same percentage. For example, from June 1, 2022, they increased by 10%.

Conditionally, a civil pensioner received an increase of 1000 rubles, and another official 10,000 rubles. Thus, the stratification in income increases every year.

At the same time, the prices of food and goods are increasing equally for everyone. As a result, the impoverishment of the civilian part of the population is occurring with much greater acceleration.

You can at least slightly improve this situation.

- INDEX PENSIONS (officials, military, civilian) EQUAL, based on the average estimated pension.

For example, in 2022, the average pension in the country is 18,521 rubles.

That is, from July 1, 2022 (preferably from the nearest date), it is necessary to recalculate, increasing pensions not in the same way as they did in June, but adding 10% of the average size to everyone - 1852.1 rubles. And henceforth, always give everyone an equal increase.

There will be no additional expenses for the budget, the settlement system will be simplified, a slight increase will slightly solve the problem of poverty, and the funds of the poorest part of pensioners will immediately return to the economy.

Non-working pensioners in Russia do not work equally, and therefore everyone should receive an equal inflationary increase. This will slightly slow down the impoverishment of people and smooth out the injustice of existing Russian pension laws.

In 2022, 42.2 million pensioners live in Russia (almost half of the country's total adult population). To this number we must add the workers who receive low wages, and there are also millions of those in Russia. It turns out a lot of poor people.

All the efforts of the authorities (whether it is support for large and small enterprises, entrepreneurs, and everything else) are doomed to failure in the absence of the main link in the economic chain - buyers (because of their poverty).

The problem of economic development, as well as "unwinding a ball of thread", should not be from the "middle" (from the manufacturer), but from the "end" (from the buyer).

Poverty is the main brake. There is no consumer demand and there is no one to produce for anyone, and there is no development.

In order to radically improve the situation in Russia, of course, (in addition to changing pension laws, at least in terms of indexation), other measures are needed.

But in the conditions of the modern Russian political system, changes that in any way affect the existing model of the domination of capitalism are impossible, and therefore it makes no sense to talk about them in this situation. (Much has already been said before, but nothing has been accepted.)

Therefore, correction is possible only within the system.

I have only said here how one can partially alleviate the severity of the low incomes of a large number of pensioners in Russia.

PS This proposal was sent on June 23, 2022 to the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin. to the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation.