For working pensioners, points will be recalculated from August 1: what is the increase enough for

No matter what sanctions whirlwinds swirl over Russia, the government continues to strictly fulfill its social obligations to the population. So, the State Duma announced a new indexation of pensions for working pensioners from August 1. More precisely, this is not indexation (which, as you know, has been suspended in our country for working pensioners since 2016), but recalculation. As a result, each working veteran will add a maximum of 3 pension points. As they say, receive and sign.

We have such a tradition: so that working pensioners do not feel forgotten and abandoned by the state, they recalculate payments once a year. They do not index to the level of inflation, as non-working ones, namely, they recalculate.

Actually, this procedure, although carried out automatically, is purely individual for each. The amount of one point, to the nearest penny, depends on the year of retirement and the salary for the last year, that is, on those contributions to the Social (former Pension) Fund that the employer pays for his employee. But no more than 3 points per brother is the ceiling!

The State Duma, where the upcoming recalculation was announced, reported that on average one pension coefficient (point) is estimated this year at almost 124 rubles. The amount, of course, is ridiculous. But if you multiply it by 3, then the result is almost 372 rubles.

Is it a lot or a little? For the sake of the experiment, we go to the store in order to immediately use up the increase that has not yet arrived on the card. Of course, we focus on promotions that provide discounts on products. Without them, there is nothing to do with such an amount in the malls.

I share my plans with an elderly customer and hear from her the idea that it is easier for women to spend such an amount than for men.

– At a discount, I will buy 1.5 kilograms of pork for 370 rubles, – the interlocutor explains to me, – I will wind the minced meat and make cutlets. Enough for me for a week. But besides cutlets, of course, you need a lot more: buy butter, and milk, and pasta, and vegetables for salad … In general, less than 500 rubles for one trip to the store does not work. This is if in a Spartan way, without frills.

– And what is wrong with men, how will they dispose of such an increase? I ask her.

– For them, it is generally one tooth, – she answers. – They definitely won’t make cutlets. They will buy sausages, but it is expensive even for a promotion. If “Amateur”, then the money is enough for about half a kilo. Or the same number of dumplings – more or less decent ones cost 700 rubles a kilogram.

In general, it is clear that an increase of 372 rubles per month is purely symbolic.

Here, both for the state and for working pensioners, it becomes truly offensive. Today there are about 8 million of them in the country – a whole army that lives, figuratively speaking, by the factory whistle and produces, as the classics of Marxism-Leninism said, material values.

Today, the Russian labor market, more than ever, needs workers, and especially experienced, qualified specialists, who, as a rule, are working pensioners. And they work off their bread, and even the youth are taught the mind-reason.

And what do they get from the state for their hard work?

Full indexation of pensions for the amount of annual inflation, like their non-working colleagues, they have stopped being paid since 2016. And last year, we recall, it was considerable, almost 12%. Instead – a “handout” for a pound of dumplings …

Why do the authorities stubbornly refuse indexation to working pensioners? There are no funds in the treasury for this in conditions of a budget deficit?

– There are reserves in the country, – Aleksey Zubets, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, is sure. – But it is generally accepted that the main support from the state should go to non-working pensioners and those over 80 years old. And if a person has enough strength to work or earn extra money, then he is not “problematic” in terms of income.

– But with rising consumer prices and working veterans do not always have enough to live on. Last year, inflation was 12%, and they are compensated for less than 400 rubles …

– Let’s count. The minimum wage in Russia is 14 thousand rubles. Pensions are on average the same or higher. Add these two figures – you get the minimum (after all, the majority does not work for the minimum wage) that a working pensioner receives per month. Runs not to say that much, but the basic needs are clearly enough. As a rule, the income of working pensioners is much higher than that of non-working ones. If such a veteran continues to work, then he has a fairly high salary – at least in terms of the needs of him and his family.

– It turns out that working people can not dream of indexing. But the labor market needs them, given all the demographic problems. How then to stimulate the work of veterans? At one time it was proposed to increase their paid holidays …

– This means that the employer must send part of the wage fund to the pensioner. Which automatically worsens the possibilities for hiring the same pensioner. If you need to invest more in it and at the same time the applicant will work less, why is such an employee needed? Such benefits will have the opposite effect – veterans will no longer be hired. The budget, with its large deficit, has no extra money. Under these conditions, the government is forced to save – this must be accepted as a fact!