In pursuit of points: a pension can now be «purchased»

IRINA MISHINA

First, about the good. That is, that since August 1, the Social Fund of Russia has recalculated the insurance pensions of pensioners who worked in 2022. The adjustment of payments will affect all recipients of old-age and disability pensions for whom employers paid insurance premiums last year. Payments will also be increased to recipients of the survivor's pension. The August recalculation depends on the pensioner's salary: the higher it is, the more the pension will be increased. The maximum increase is (fanfare!) as many as three pension coefficients.

How to «buy» a pension for yourself

It is around these very coefficients, or rather their accumulation, that the battles have unfolded recently. There were reports that some people may not have enough points to calculate a pension. As you know, the main conditions for obtaining an old—age insurance pension are the availability of work experience and pension coefficients. The minimum length of service for retirement in 2023 is 14 years. The number of pension points required when applying for a pension is 25.8 points.

But what if a person does not have enough points or experience?

We asked Vadim Vinogradov, Dean of the HSE Faculty of Law, to comment on this circumstance.

«In the absence of at least one of the necessary conditions, the insured will be denied a pension from the Pension and Social Insurance Fund (SFR). In this case, the person is either satisfied with a social pension at the expense of the federal budget, which is appointed five years later than the general retirement age, or it is possible to correct the situation by „buying up“ the missing points or years. In this case, the insured independently transfers contributions to the Fund. The minimum amount of voluntary insurance contributions for the year is the tariff multiplied by 12 minimum wage (conditional annual salary in the amount of the minimum wage). When buying pension points, the length of service is also added. But at the same time, it is impossible to „buy“ more than half of the length of service required for the appointment of a pension, » explained the Dean of the HSE Faculty of Law to NI.

It's not even about seniority, although it seems to be increased to 15 years. The problem is that «pension coefficients», that is, employers' deductions in The Pension Fund of Russia (FIU), which has been liquidated, may be below the norm or absent altogether. There have been such cases. It is not superfluous to recall that in 2022 the Accounting Chamber found the grossest falsifications in the work of the FIU. At that time, pensions were not paid en masse. When the audit report was published, amazing facts were revealed: one SNILS could be assigned to several people, the FIU opened several retirement accounts for the same person. But the FIU then forgave everything, renaming it the Pension and Social Insurance Fund (SFR). And about the scandalized FIU, as it were, they forgot. As you guessed correctly, and with the coefficients of future pensioners, no one is going to fix anything and sort it out at all. Actually, the story repeats itself with the funded part of the pension. They promised to give it away, then declared a moratorium, and then completely forgot. In general, there is no money, but you are holding on.

It is not superfluous to recall that some deputies even proposed to cancel the old-age pension. For example, Dmitry Petrovsky, a deputy of the Yaroslavl City Duma from United Russia, said at the time: «We are used to sitting on the neck of the state, we are used to it owing us something. And if there is no free education, we are uncomfortable, there is no free pension provision, we are uncomfortable again. It came to us with the legacy of the Soviet Union, and we need to move away from this legacy.» True, Petrovsky was expelled from the EP after these words, but his thoughts were continued by none other than the speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin. He, in particular, said: «We have a state pension system with a deficit, there is such a hole in it, and it is being filled at the expense of the budget. Whether we will continue to have state pensions or not is also a question, because the budget has become deficient.»

Indeed, they gave the money to the pension fund — and that's enough. Moreover, the time is difficult now. This is the logic of high government officials.

Why a pension if it is impossible to live on it?

We asked Vadim Vinogradov, Dean of the HSE Faculty of Law, who now controls employers' deductions. After all, they may actually be minimal or zero .

«The merger of the Pension Fund of Russia and the Social Insurance Fund and the creation of the unified Social Fund of Russia did not affect the safety of the deductions made earlier. If the absence or insufficiency of deductions is the fault of the employer, then this is controlled directly by the Fund itself and the tax authorities, to whom a significant part of the powers to control the correctness of the calculation, completeness and timeliness of payment of insurance premiums have been transferred. Information about pension savings can be found on the website of the SFR or a non—state pension fund, depending on who the savings were entrusted to», — said Vadim Vinogradov, Dean of the HSE Faculty of Law.

But let's think about what it's all about. The average amount of pensions awarded in January 2023 amounted to 19,322 rubles. Is it possible to live on this money today? The answer is obvious.

«A person who just knows how to use a calculator, in my opinion, cannot count on a pension. On a pension that you can live on. You just take the current pension level and compare it with the real subsistence minimum. And everything is clear to everyone, starting with raising the retirement age», — explains Mikhail Delyagin, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy.

«Pension reform is serfdom»

Economist Dmitry Potapenko speaks out radically.

«The existing pension system in its current form is a scam. They take money from working people, steal it, and then return the remnants of what they stole. The whole story about the fact that you can buy pension points — it sounds something like this: „We stole, compensate for what we stole from you.“ I believe that a person should save for retirement during his life, so as not to be robbed by the state, and then decide for himself when to retire. A person working here gives 40% to a virtual official. If people were given the entire amount without deducting taxes on their hands, he could save himself for a comfortable old age. And so — we have serfdom, a rollback to 1861», — economist Dmitry Potapenko told NI.

In the USSR, by the way, the average pension in the 1980s was 90 rubles. It was about 50% of the salary: the average salary was then 180 rubles.

If we take Europe, pensions there are incomparably high compared to us. The average pension is 785 euros, which is 79 thousand of our rubles. In addition, pensioners in Europe have many benefits and discounts. The most important is assistance in paying for housing and utilities. If you don't have your own place, you can rent it. Depending on the pension, a significant part of the cost will be paid to you, and with a pension at the very minimum — ALL 100%. Of course, there is a limit on the cost of rented housing. But, in general, you can rent quite decent housing almost for free.

As for our pensioners, something else is scary. Their number is catastrophically decreasing. According to official data of the Accounting Chamber, in 2022 the number of Russians who receive pensions fell by 840 thousand people. In one year!

These people simply did not survive: someone could not be cured, someone starved, ate palm oil, unable to buy normal products, and eventually got cancer… Many were knocked down by post-kidney complications, which medicine treats very reluctantly. The strongest reduction of these 840 thousand people is those who received an insurance pension.

«But the recipients of state pensions are an army of officials, deputies, senators, servants of the people who tell us about the transfer to the domestic car industry, there are more retired officials. Because these are our most important drones and knee-lifts, in particular those who adopted anti-social laws. There are more of them by 24 thousand people — there are already 3 million 900 thousand. And those who pay taxes — doctors, teachers, miners, teachers, bus and trolleybus drivers, janitors, representatives of small businesses — there are 800 thousand fewer of them, » economist Vladislav Zhukovsky calculated.

In other words, over the past four years, from 2019 to 2022, while the pension reform is working, we have lost almost 2 million 800 thousand people.

«In the absence of at least one of the necessary conditions, the insured will be denied a pension from the Pension and Social Insurance Fund (SFR). In this case, the person is either satisfied with a social pension at the expense of the federal budget, which is assigned five years later than the general retirement age, or it is possible to correct the situation by „buying up“ the missing points or years. In this case, the insured independently transfers contributions to the Fund. The minimum amount of voluntary insurance contributions for the year is the tariff multiplied by 12 minimum wage (conditional annual salary in the amount of the minimum wage). When buying pension points, the length of service is also added. But at the same time, it is impossible to „buy“ more than half of the length of service required for the appointment of a pension, » explained the Dean of the HSE Faculty of Law to NI.

It's not even about seniority, although it seems to be increased to 15 years. The problem is that «pension coefficients», that is, employers' deductions in The Pension Fund of Russia (FIU), which has been liquidated, may be below the norm or absent altogether. There have been such cases. It is not superfluous to recall that in 2022 the Accounting Chamber found gross falsifications in the work of the FIU. Then massively did not pay extra pensions. When the audit report was published, amazing facts were revealed: one SNILS could be assigned to several people, the FIU opened several retirement accounts for the same person. But the FIU then forgave everything, renaming it the Pension and Social Insurance Fund (SFR). And about the scandalized FIU, as it were, they forgot. As you guessed correctly, and with the coefficients of future pensioners, no one is going to fix anything and sort it out at all. Actually, the story repeats itself with the funded part of the pension. They promised to give it away, then declared a moratorium, and then completely forgot. In general, there is no money, but you are holding on.

«A person who just knows how to use a calculator, in my opinion, cannot count on a pension. On a pension that you can live on. You just take the current pension level and compare it with the real subsistence minimum. And everything is clear to everyone, starting with raising the retirement age, » explains Mikhail Delyagin, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy.

«The existing pension system in its current form is a scam. They take money from working people, steal it, and then return the remnants of what they stole. The whole story about the fact that you can buy pension points — it sounds something like this: „We stole, compensate for what we stole from you.“ I believe that a person should save for retirement during his life, so as not to be robbed by the state, and then decide for himself when to retire. In our country, a person, working, gives 40% to a virtual official. If people were given the entire amount without deducting taxes on their hands, he could save himself for a comfortable old age. And so — we have serfdom, a rollback to 1861, » economist Dmitry Potapenko told NI.

If we take Europe, pensions there are incomparably high compared to us. The average pension is 785 euros, which is 79 thousand of our rubles. In addition, pensioners in Europe have many benefits and discounts. The most important is assistance in paying for housing and utilities. If you do not have your own home, you can rent it. Depending on the pension, a significant part of the cost will be paid to you, and with a pension at the very minimum — ALL 100%. Of course, there is a limit on the cost of rented housing. But, in general, you can rent quite decent housing almost for free.