Russian pensioners have three main reasons why they prefer not to work, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at a meeting in the State Duma on October 26.
As RBC reports, the first reason the minister named was the ratio of the level of pensions and the proposed salaries. “Social surveys were conducted on why pensioners do not work. First of all, the information is as follows: pensioners say that pensions are rising enough and low wages are being offered. Pensions, taking into account indexation, have increased significantly over the past two years. And if you go to work, employers do not always offer a decent level of pay,” Siluanov explained.
In total, as of September 1, there were 41.2 million pensioners in Russia, of which 33.6 million were unemployed and 7.6 million were employed. As of September 1, the average pension for citizens registered with the Social Fund was 19.58 thousand rubles. For non-working pensioners, the average payment amount was almost a quarter higher than the pensions of workers and amounted to 20.28 thousand versus 16.47 thousand rubles. This difference is due to the fact that the annual indexation of pensions since 2016 does not affect working pensioners.
In 2022, payments for non-working pensioners were indexed twice (the cumulative increase was 19.46%), and in 2023 indexation was carried out by another 4.8%. If in 2016 working pensioners made up more than a third of the total number registered with the Pension Fund, then by the beginning of 2023 their share had decreased to 18.9%.
The head of the Ministry of Finance listed two more reasons why retired Russians do not work. “Secondly, people prefer to rest for health reasons. And the third is the argument that care for grandchildren is necessary. These three positions are precisely the basis for pensioners to remain retired, receive their pension payments and provide for those needs for which social surveys were conducted,” Siluanov said.
The Ministry of Finance considered the idea of indexing pensions for workers, even if the indexation would be selective and cover representatives of certain professions, to be untenable. “We are skeptical about raising the issue of indexing pensions for certain categories of professions. In our opinion, this issue requires additional study and discussion,” Siluanov said.
Source: Rosbalt
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