New regions will be given 10 years to switch to the Russian retirement age

The government has prepared a draft law on the specifics of pension provision in the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. The document was considered on January 26 at a government meeting and on January 27 at the Russian tripartite commission (it includes representatives of the Russian government, employers and trade unions). It involves maintaining the retirement age for those who already receive it (it differs in Russia and in new regions). At the same time, for citizens who must retire from March 1, 2023 to December 31, 2032, in accordance with the legislation in force in these territories, a transitional period will be established, follows from the bill (Vedomosti has it).

To assign a pension, residents of the new territories must be citizens of the Russian Federation, follows from the document. They must also permanently reside in the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions as of September 30, 2022. At the same time, residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics could reside there from May 11, 2014 (the date of the referendums) to September 29, 2022 city, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions – from February 24, 2022 to September 29, 2022 and leave the indicated territories for Russia, including through the territories of third countries.

Citizens will be given the time when they can apply for the appointment of pensions – from March 1, 2023 to February 29, 2024, the bill notes. Starting March 1, the size of pensions and monthly pension payments will be recalculated, and upon initial application, they will be established and paid in accordance with Russian legislation.

“Infringement of the pension rights of citizens will not happen. The length of service and the average monthly salary for the periods that took place on the territory of Ukraine, the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Luhansk People’s Republic, the Zaporozhye region, the Kherson region, will be confirmed by documents issued by employers or the relevant state (municipal) bodies, ”the explanatory note says.

Many now do not have the opportunity to confirm their earnings and experience by providing documents from employers or state and municipal authorities, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin noted at a government meeting on Thursday, January 26. “In such situations, specially created interdepartmental commissions will help. The regulation has already been approved. They will make sure that the rights of citizens are protected,” Mishustin said. According to him, pensions and bonuses to them will be indexed.

Pensions and monthly payments will be made at the expense of the budgets of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions provided to the Pension and Social Insurance Fund (Sotsfond), as well as interbudgetary transfers from the federal budget, follows from the document. Once adopted, the law will enter into force on March 1, 2023.

Since 2019, a pension reform has started in Russia, which involves a phased increase in the retirement age by five years. By 2028, the retirement age will reach 65 for men and 60 for women.

According to Ukrainian legislation, which was in force in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, the retirement age is 60 years for men and women upon reaching 30 years of work experience, 63 years with an experience of 20 to 30 years, 65 years with an experience of 15–20 years. In the DPR and LPR, the retirement age is set at 60 for men and 55 for women.

If from March 1, 2023 to December 31, 2032 a citizen reaches retirement age, he can retire in accordance with the legislation in force in the territories before December 31, 2022, follows from the bill. The conditions for the appointment and the amount of such payments will be determined by regional legislation.

There was no unified pension legislation in the territories of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, a representative of the Ministry of Labor notes. The regions also differ in other grounds for retirement, including early retirement, for various categories of workers, he adds. For example, athletes have the right to early retirement under certain conditions. “Taking into account these features, a transitional period is proposed until December 31, 2032. During this time, regional pension payments are in effect, which can be issued until the generally established retirement age is reached. After reaching the generally established age, a pension is assigned according to Russian legislation, ”explained a representative of the Ministry of Labor.

In Russia, a 10-year transitional period has been established to raise the retirement age – it lasts from 2019 to 2028, reminded Alexander Safonov, Vice-Rector of the Financial University. We have already passed four years from this period, but the new regions have not, therefore it is fair to set the same 10-year period for them until 2032, the expert believes. Thus, if residents of the new regions have to retire within the specified period, the old norms will apply to them.

“It is necessary that people who are moving into the legal field of the Russian Federation have the opportunity of a gradual transition,” said Svetlana Bessarab, a member of the State Duma Committee on Labour, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs. According to her, for those regions “which are in a rather difficult situation today, of course, a transitional period is needed.” This is also due to the fact that it is necessary to create appropriate opportunities for accounting for the length of service and pension points that citizens have previously accumulated, she adds.

The draft federal law contains provisions on the assessment of the pension rights of insured persons for the period up to 2002 (the start of personalized accounting in the pension system in Russia) and from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2022.

Earnings from 2002 to 2022 are confirmed by documents issued by the employer or government agencies, the bill says. At the same time, the amount of salary cannot be confirmed by witness testimony. In this case, to determine the amount of the pension, it is proposed to take the average salary of employees of organizations in the first quarter of 2022 in the Rostov region (for the DPR and LPR) and in the Republic of Crimea (for the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions) – it is 40,183 and 37,315 rubles. respectively.

Pension rights up to 2002 are calculated by the Social Fund on the basis of earnings either for the period from 2000 to 2001 or for any five consecutive years up to 2002, a representative of the Ministry of Labor explains. Residents of new regions can confirm the length of service and earnings until 2002 by submitting a salary certificate from the employer and from the archive, in the absence of documents – through the interdepartmental commission. The same order regarding the length of service until 2002 is valid throughout the country, the representative adds.

If, after recalculation, the amount of the pension turns out to be less than it was before, an additional payment will be provided taking into account this difference, follows from the document. Insurance pensions and additional payments to them are subject to annual indexation in accordance with the legislation of Russia.

It is impossible to calculate the average salary of an employee from 2002 to 2022 due to the lack of information in the accounting system, so the bill proposes an average system, explains Safonov. The use of average monthly salaries in the Russian regions as an analog method can be called a preferential condition, the expert believes. Traditionally, it is believed that the replacement rate for lost earnings at retirement should be at the level of 40% of the average salary, adds Safonov.

The procedure for calculating salaries specified in the bill is not a dogma, therefore, in case of imperfections, it can be clarified, believes David Krishtal, deputy chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR). Confirming the amount of earnings and seniority is complicated by the fact that in these regions there is no personalized accounting, it will only be created, he adds. The procedure for assigning pensions in new regions is the same as in Crimea, Krishtal notes: average salaries were also chosen there to calculate the amount of pensions for those citizens who cannot document their earnings. First you need to accept the general conditions, then the FNPR will propose to establish additional payments to the pensions of miners, metallurgists and professions with dangerous working conditions, Krishtal points out.

Permanent residence will be confirmed by a mark in the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation on his registration on a specified date or a certificate of registration at the place of residence issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs or its territorial bodies, follows from the bill. If it is not possible to confirm the length of service, as well as the amount of earnings from 2002 to 2023, they can be established based on the decision of the interdepartmental commission.

According to the draft law, this can be done on the basis of several documents: information from the individual personal account of the insured person in the Ukrainian system for the period up to September 30, 2022 or the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions until January 1, 2023, a passbook, information on the income of an individual, documents of the employer, employment services, territorial bodies of the Federal Tax Service, the Social Fund, information on the payment of insurance premiums to the Pension Fund of Ukraine for the period up to September 30 and other documents containing information on labor activity.

In the absence of these documents, the length of service is established by the commission based on the testimony of two or more witnesses who know him from joint work and have documents from the employer in the same period of time, the bill says. The commission will include representatives of the Social Fund, Rostrud, the Federal Tax Service, the executive bodies of the subject in the field of labor and employment, local governments, as well as representatives of employers, trade unions, archival organizations. The government will approve the regulation on the commission separately, the document says.

The confirmation of the length of service described in the bill is an absolutely normal practice that will make life easier for the employee, Safonov believes. In Russia, there is a rule for confirming Soviet experience through testimonies for employees of bankrupt enterprises, he adds, only traditionally this happens through the courts, and in new regions commissions will deal with this in a simplified manner, the expert noted.