The law on increasing the amount of pension payments has been approved: will Russians feel the changes?

The authorities increased the cost of the pension coefficient and the size of the fixed payment to the insurance pension until 2026

The law on increasing the cost of the pension coefficient (SPK) within the framework of the draft budget of the Pension and Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation for 2024-2026 was approved on November 22 by the Federation Council. Already from January 1 of next year, the SPK will be 133.05 rubles, from February 1, 2025 it will increase to 139.04 rubles, from April 1 – to 142.10 rubles. In 2026, this figure will also be doubled. In addition, the authorities increased the size of the fixed payment to the old-age insurance pension. Experts told MK whether Russian pensioners will feel these increases in their wallets.

At the end of the year, authorities traditionally pay a lot of attention to social policy issues. Despite all the difficulties, this November was no exception. This time, the Federation Council approved several bills previously proposed by the State Duma, including those aimed at improving the well-being of Russian pensioners. According to the First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy, Alexander Varfolomeev, the document adopted today guarantees that from January 1 next year, the average pension for non-working insurance pension recipients will increase by 1,572 rubles and, after recalculation, will amount to 22,605 rubles, the average amount of an old-age insurance pension non-working pensioners – by 1,631 rubles and will amount to 23,449 rubles. In addition, the size of the fixed payment to the old-age insurance pension will increase from 7915.43 to 8134.88 rubles.

“Increasing the pension point is important for those who apply for a pension, since in this case, the higher the value of the pension point, the greater the amount of the insurance part of the pension,” explained the essence of the innovations, an associate professor of the Department of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation “Human Resource Management” of the Russian Economic University. . G.V. Plekhanova Lyudmila Ivanova-Shvets.

At the same time, the value of pension points and the size of the fixed payment can be increased. To do this, it is possible to delay receiving a pension at the request of the pensioner for a certain number of years. As Andrei Girinsky, associate professor of the Faculty of Economics at RUDN University, recalled, the range of changes in the coefficient for increasing pension points will be from 1 to 2.32, depending on how many months or years the receipt of a pension is delayed. The fixed payment increase coefficient will vary from 1.056 to 2.11 points. However, the maximum period for postponing the registration of a pension, which affects the above parameters, does not exceed 120 months, that is, 10 years. It is necessary to recall that there is now a transition period and, for example, in 2021, the minimum required to receive a pension was 12 years of service and, accordingly, 21 points; for 2022, 13 years and 23.4 points were required, respectively. From 2024, the numbers will be based on 15 years of experience, and you need to score 28.2 points. The reform is planned to be completed in 2026, and according to the results, a pensioner will need to have 15 years of experience and a minimum of 30 points. Thus, increasing the coefficients will generally increase pensions in Russia.

However, not all experts are sure that pensioners will feel this increase in their wallets. As Freedom Finance Global leading analyst Natalya Milchakova said, changes in the value of the pension coefficient affect the size of the pension of those Russians who retire in the corresponding year, that is, apply for a pension to the Pension and Social Insurance Fund, and also depending on The SPK adjusts pensions for working pensioners. All pensioners benefit from an increase in the value of the pension coefficient, but for working people this is of particular importance, since the size of their pension is currently not indexed. From January 1, the SPK will increase by 7.5% compared to the same value in 2023, that is, this parameter for 2024 has been increased to the level of inflation predicted for 2023. And if inflation turns out to be lower, we can say that the benefits for pensioners will be even slightly more significant. Of course, these numbers are small, and this increase will affect the nominal amounts of pensions, not the real ones. Personal, that is, observed by the population, inflation is higher than the official data of Rosstat, as a rule, 1.5-2 times. That is, in fact, this increase will not cover inflation, and pensioners will not really feel this change in their wallets. Even the living wage of a pensioner, which in 2023 exceeded 12 thousand rubles, is a very symbolic value, especially for life in large cities. In order for pensioners to feel more of an increase in their pension payments from the state in their wallets, a strong ruble and a stop to the growth of inflation are much more important, the expert is sure.

“Increasing the pension coefficient from 123.77 rubles to 133.05 rubles is necessary so that the old-age insurance pension is calculated taking into account the level of inflation,” Alexander Safonov, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, continues the conversation. — If this is not done, then the real purchasing power of pensions will decline. Unfortunately, a permanent procedure for increasing the pension coefficient has not yet been approved in Russia. This leads to the fact that its dynamics in certain periods of time lag behind the inflation rate. This in turn slows down the growth of pensions. Of course, it would be more correct for the pension coefficient to grow at the level of wage growth. Now the average pension is small in relation to the level of consumer prices and necessary expenses. Increasing the pension coefficient will make it possible to increase the basic calculation of old-age insurance pensions by 7.5%, that is, to take into account the increase in inflation for 2023. However, its growth will not be able to catch up with the dynamics of salaries.

The growth of the pension coefficient largely depends on the level of income of the Social Fund, that is, on the volume of insurance contributions from employers. It should be remembered that in order to support business, the government decided to reduce insurance premiums for a number of industries. In addition, employers have adopted the transfer of workers from employment contracts to self-employment, which leads to the fact that the self-employed do not pay any contributions to the Social Fund at all. These factors hinder the increase in the income base of the pension system and increase its dependence on the federal budget. And in conditions of its deficit, this creates even more obstacles to further increasing the pension coefficient at a rate at the level of inflation or at the level of wage growth, the professor emphasized.