How Donetsk reacted to raising the retirement age: “It’s not so scary”

There is work, salaries are increased, the main thing is not to shoot

Residents of the DPR are expected to increase the retirement age, however, gradually – over ten years. It should be recalled that before joining the Russian Federation, the retirement age for Donetsk residents was set at 55 years for women and 60 years for men. Some categories of citizens, for example, those who worked in hazardous industries, could retire even earlier. But now the DPR will have to go through a long way to achieve the all-Russian retirement age – 60 and 65 years, respectively. During the transition period, Donetsk residents will be able to apply for regional pension supplements. It seems that everything has been clarified, but the pre-pensioners of the DPR still have anxiety …

But that’s not all the news for older residents of Donetsk. The fact is that from March 1, monthly pension payments will be recalculated and, accordingly, increased. This was recalled by the Acting Head of the DPR Denis Pushilin. Payments will be recalculated and equated to Russian ones.

How do the inhabitants of the Republic themselves relate to such changes?

Employees of the pension fund have significantly increased their work. And it’s not about the paperwork associated with the integration of republican legislation into the legal field of the Russian Federation. Pensioners literally cut off the fund’s telephone lines, but now, in addition to information about SNILS and the unified allowance, there are questions about raising the retirement age.

Many Donetsk residents do not fully understand the “smoothness” of the transition period. Many believed that from March of this year, dreams of retirement would remain dreams. “My daughter told me about the increase in age,” says Natalya, a resident of Torez. “Well, that’s it, I think I’ll have to work for another five years. Only then did the pension fund explain that no one would leave me without a pension this year and there was no need to worry.”

Perhaps the reaction of the residents of the DPR is fundamentally different from the reaction of residents of other regions of the Russian Federation. In addition to the standard responses “to survive” to information about raising the retirement age, they answer “the main thing is not to shoot, and retirement is not so scary.”

“It doesn’t matter whether you leave at 60 or 65,” Gennady, a native of Donetsk, comments on the situation. “The main thing is that there should be no shelling. Republic. Builders are now needed throughout the DPR, that’s experience, and work, and benefit to society. “

Indeed, as it turned out, in comparison with previous years, finding an official job that would allow you to gain experience has become much easier. The republic is in dire need of builders and housing and communal services workers, doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Moreover, salaries have increased significantly over the past year.

But there are those who are against pension reforms.

“When the transition period ends, I will just have to retire,” says Lyudmila, a teacher from Makiivka. “I can’t imagine how I will teach and cope with the academic load at the age of 65. I think that raising the retirement age is a mistake for our region. The residents of Donbass are already having a hard time, and now they will also have to “live” with all their might until retirement” .

For Donetsk residents, the issue of raising the retirement age, for obvious reasons, has receded into the background. Young people are ready for change, and the older generation in the majority, too. It’s not the news about the retirement age that upsets Donetsk residents, but the constant shelling, the lack of water in the city and the increase in prices in stores…