It became known who will increase pensions from October 1

The increase in payments will affect almost 3 million elderly Russians

Despite the fact that the authorities have repeatedly indexed pensions this year, as it turned out, not all categories of older Russians are covered. From October 1, the turn of another, rather numerous category of pensioners will come. We are talking about former military personnel and employees of law enforcement agencies, who, according to various sources, number from 2.5 to 3 million people in the country.

The traditional increase in pensions for military pensioners is scheduled for October 1, 2022. For this category of pensioners, this date is established by law and does not change from year to year. Here it should be noted that this is not a simple indexation, but a more complex formula for increasing payments.

The law states that military pensions must be indexed annually to the level of inflation in the country. Also, a military pension directly depends on what salaries by rank and position are currently in effect for regular military personnel.

In July, payments to military pensioners were indexed by 19.5%, taking into account indexation by 8.6% at the beginning of 2022. In the fall of 2022, another increase in payments awaits pensioners: military pensions will be recalculated again. The 8.6% surcharge will be removed, instead, the reduction factor will be increased from 74 to 85.47%. Then the authorities will index the salaries of military personnel and security forces by 4%. Thus, the total pensions of military pensioners will increase by 20.1% in 2022. According to government calculations, this should exceed the level of annual inflation, which is expected in the range of 14-17%.

According to the financial and economic justification for the bill, additional budget expenditures for these purposes will amount to 63.4 billion rubles in 2022.

In total, an increase in October 2022 will be received by about 2.5-3 million military pensioners – who served under a contract or on conscription; former employees of the Russian Guard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the Federal Penitentiary Service, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the federal fire service, customs authorities, courier communications.

It is curious that the government is currently discussing the possibility of a new indexation of pensions for former law enforcement officers. In particular, an unscheduled increase in pensions can be expected from October 1 for those who worked in the prosecutor’s office or in the investigation. True, this still requires the adoption of appropriate amendments to the legislation in the State Duma of the Russian Federation. The changes have already been developed by the Ministry of Finance and approved by the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General’s Office. The exact amount of indexation has not yet been announced, but most likely it will be 10%, as is the case with other pensioners whose payments were increased from June 1, 2022.

According to TeleTrade’s chief analyst Mark Goykhman, indexation of pensions for military pensioners to a level higher than the official annual inflation is a good and fair decision, based on considerations of the need to compensate for price increases. “Otherwise, there would be extremely atypical for Russia“ discrimination ”of people belonging to law enforcement agencies, compared with“ civilian ”pensioners who had already had their pensions raised,” the analyst says.

Polina Gusyatnikova, Senior Managing Partner at PG Partners, for her part, draws attention to the very mechanism for increasing military pensions. “According to the law, the amount of pensions of military categories of pensioners is tied to the amount of their monetary allowance and is calculated using a coefficient set on January 1, 2012 in the amount of 54%, and since then has been increasing annually by 2% per year until reaching 100% (currently time it is 74%), – the lawyer explains, – For the purpose of indexation, the legislator has established a special monthly supplement for these categories of pensioners in the amount of 8.6% of the assigned pension. From October 1st, the surcharge will no longer be paid, but on the other hand, the coefficient for calculating the amount of pensions depending on the monetary allowance will increase from 74% to 85.47%, and the monetary allowance itself will also increase (by 4%), which together will compensate for the abolition of the surcharge “.

“The formula for calculating pensions for the military is quite complicated, but with an average of 25 thousand rubles, the increase will be more than 1,000 rubles,” says economist Andrey Loboda, director of external relations. In his opinion, it is very important that the trend of growth in pensions and salaries of military personnel will become stable and long-term, and at least their growth will adequately offset inflation. “The federal center can also more often allocate funds for one-time payments of up to 20 thousand rubles and social medical assistance to military personnel,” the economist believes.