By October 1, pensioners will receive holiday payments: who will be paid and how much?

Local authorities are preparing cash gifts for the Day of the Elderly

The International Day of Older Persons, established by the UN General Assembly, is celebrated on October 1. As it approaches, in recent years rumors have intensified about a one-time transfer of 10 thousand rubles to all pensioners in the country – as was the case in 2021. Since then, these rumors have never been confirmed, but many pensioners will still receive certain cash payments – they are provided at the regional level in a number of subjects of the Federation. MK collected information about the already announced payments and asked experts to comment on this information.

Let us emphasize right away, in order to remove all questions: there is no uniform payment for the entire country by October 1 and there was no plan; no money was included in the deficit federal budget for these purposes. Only certain subjects of the Federation make one-time payments to the elderly for the holiday. Their size and conditions depend on the capabilities of local budgets, which vary significantly.

For example, in the Chelyabinsk region, over 815 thousand elderly residents of the region will receive money for the Day of the Elderly this year. Those who will turn 55 (women) and 60 (men) on October 1, 2023, and those who have long since retired will receive 700 additional rubles. There is no need to submit an application, the money will come either by mail or to a bank account.

Pensioners of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug can count on a slightly larger amount. Here, a holiday gift in the amount of 1,122 rubles is provided for all women and men aged 60 and 65 years, respectively. In this case, the payment is made upon application to the social security authorities. If the pensioner is already registered there, then everything is done automatically, the payment is added to the old-age benefit.

Old people in the Nizhny Novgorod region will receive 1,000 rubles each – and only those who were participants and disabled people of the Great Patriotic War, former prisoners of ghettos and concentration camps.

In the Ryazan region, 500 rubles will be given to local residents who celebrated their 90th anniversary, provided they receive a social pension or old-age insurance with permanent registration in the region. The same amount will go to elderly residents of the Yaroslavl region – but only to unemployed former employees of regional government agencies. For them, the application procedure also applies, but if the payment is not transferred for the first time, then an application will not be necessary.

Traditionally, the most generous holiday gift goes to the older generation of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. But not all local pensioners, but only those who have worked in the region for at least 15 years or disabled people of all groups who have lived in the area for 20 years or more. They are entitled to 5,000 rubles, and if they are 70 years old, then 16,640. Payments are made upon application, and it can be submitted after the holiday – up to December 31.

Mark Goikhman, analyst at the Capital Skills Financial Academy, comments:

“In 2021, a one-time payment of 10,000 rubles to all pensioners was made to support older people during the pandemic and with very high price increases. In 2023, such a payment is provided for those who were entitled to it two years ago, but did not receive it then or later. The budget of the Social Fund of Russia (SFR) allocates 68.3 million rubles for these purposes. Accordingly, 6,830 people will receive this assistance. No further payments are expected under this program. Both inflation and budgetary capacity at the federal level are now much less than in 2021.

But in many regions, pensioners will be pleased with payments from regional sources. They are, however, less significant than 10,000 rubles. Their amounts depend on the state of local finances and the number of people claiming these payments.”

Andrey Loboda, economist, director of communications at BitRiver, comments:

“Caring for pensioners is one of the main social tasks of the state. Elderly Russians are still one of the most socially vulnerable segments of the population. Including in the field of finance. The decision to allocate one-time assistance in the amount of 10 thousand rubles for pensioners is made at the level of the President of Russia. At the same time, any region, as a subject of the Russian Federation, has the right to independently provide additional assistance to pensioners from its own budget funds. However, as practice shows, we are usually talking about small amounts. But in any case, this is help that will not be superfluous. This year there has indeed been a lot of talk about the possibility of paying one-time assistance to both pensioners and families with children, but this is still just speculation. But the fact that such conversations are taking place in society and the media once again shows that the population really hopes for support from the authorities.”