Eating to satiety... After paying for utilities and medicines, pensioners have 83 rubles left per day

The correspondent of Novye Izvestia decided to calculate the income and expenses of a family of two pensioners and came to a shocking result: after deducting utility bills and the cost of medicines, the two old men are left "for life" 5 thousand rubles a month, or 83 rubles a day.

Victoria Petrova

Let's say right away that 83 rubles a day is quite comparable to the expenses of the Federal Penitentiary Service on food for prisoners in Russian colonies and prisons. According to the deputy director of the department, Valery Maksimenko, in 2015, one prisoner was fed 86 rubles a day. By 2018, this amount dropped to 72 rubles. So "our" pensioners eat today 11 rubles more nourishing than prisoners of penitentiary institutions.

Another fact for comparison: according to the service Zoon.ru, the average price of a cup of espresso coffee in coffee houses is 120 rubles, for an American one - 150 rubles. This is exactly the amount that a married couple of retirees has for daily meals. It turns out ONE cup of coffee FOR TWO!

But how and where did we find such poor pensioners?

Novye Izvestia considered the budget of a married couple from the by no means poor regional center - the city of Belgorod.

The pension of the head of the family, 70-year-old Leonid Vasilyevich Zaozersky, is 19 thousand rubles. His wife Vera Vasiliyevna receives 14 thousand. Total - 33 thousand rubles a month.

In Soviet times, their family was considered exemplary.

Leonid Vasiliyevich is a labor veteran, awarded two government orders, graduate of the Moscow Polytechnic Institute, power engineer, inventor, 50 years of work experience. From 1983 to 1987 he worked in Africa as a specialist of the highest level. With the money I earned, I bought a Zhiguli, which I had been driving for 20 years. The family received the apartment from the state in 1977. For decades Zaozersky Leonid Vasilyevich was on the Hall of Fame in the city of Belgorod, the newspapers of the Central Committee of the CPSU "Pravda" and "Soviet Russia" wrote about him.

Vera Vasiliyevna, almost the same age as her husband, has 45 years of work experience, worked as the chief accountant of a trading enterprise.

The pensioners own a three-room apartment with an area of 61.2 square meters received from the state. E monthly payment for housing and communal services - 9 thousand rubles. Another 1200 rubles - payment for communication services (Internet, television, telephones). Thus, about 30 percent of family income goes to compulsory payments for communal services and communications.

But what follows is the most expensive item in life.

Both pensioners are disabled of the second group.

Five years ago Vera Vasiliyevna got into a car accident. She went through several difficult operations, but she still walks with great difficulty, trying for the most part to stay at home.

In 2018, Leonid Vasilyevich was diagnosed with cancer. He was operated free of charge at the Moscow Institute. Herzen.

"We are grateful to the doctors who saved our lives without demanding a penny. But further life is unthinkable without drugs", - says Leonid Vasiliyevich.

The monthly set of drugs prescribed for Zaozersky includes Flemoklav, Tramadol injections, Aumetin, ointments, pain relievers.

"No matter how hard you try, you can't leave it in pharmacies for less than 5 thousand a month", - says the pensioner.

Then we try to calculate the drug expenditures with Vera Vasiliyevna. In a long list of drugs she has Actovegin, one pack of which costs 1,600 rubles. Three packs are required per month. And for a circle, along with other drugs, it turns out in no way less than 10 thousand rubles a month.

Simple addition gives the sum of 15 thousand rubles, which is about the same as a couple of pensioners with disabilities spend to maintain their lives every month.

Add to 15 thousand 10 thousand for housing and communal services - it turns out 25 thousand rubles as priority and mandatory expenses.

Of the total pension of 33 thousand, 8 thousand rubles remain.

It goes without saying that a family of retirees do their laundry with washing powder, do the dishes and spend at least a thousand rubles a month on various household and household items.

A serious blow to the family budget is the annual trips to Moscow - to the clinic where Leonid Vasilyevich was operated on.

During the operation and treatment, the Zaozerskys spent all their savings, sold a car, jewelry ... So they simply have nowhere to add something "extra" to food.

As a result, we get the same 5 thousand rubles a month "for food". For two! On the diet of prisoners in Russian prisons...

It goes without saying that the Zaozerskys do not have any money to renovate an apartment, update household appliances and clothes with shoes, or at least some entertainment and trips.

There remains life within four walls and cruel economy in everything.

Would you say that we are too harsh in assessing the life of pensioners? That they are entitled to free medicines and all sorts of different benefits that the authorities trumpet?

Are laid down.

But Vera Vasiliyevna says that she has not received free medicines for six months. They are either not in pharmacies, or only for money.

It is understandable. We do not live in Germany, not in Canada, not in England and France, where ALL medicines are free for pensioners unconditionally.

Well, the news of the increase in pensions by 3.4 percent was met by the Zaozersky spouses without enthusiasm.

In 2020, prices for drugs from the list of vital drugs (VED) increased by 4.9%, said Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko, reports RIA Novosti.

"In 2020, the price for them increased by 4.9%, but at the same time, in the unregulated segment, the price increase was actually eight percent", - said Murashko at a meeting of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection.

So the increased pension will go to the pharmacy chains and Big Pharma.

TO THE POINT

The pensioners did not want to be photographed "for the newspaper", they say, not in the form that "to go out to people".