Professor Safonov Explained How Russian Citizens` Work Experience in Ukraine Will Be Taken into Account
Many elderly Russians whose past was one way or another connected with Ukraine now have a chance to increase their pension payments. This is because, starting July 1st of this year, the work periods in Ukraine and the new territories are included in the work experience calculation for Russian citizens. The Social Fund of Russia (SFR) is already receiving applications from interested individuals.
The following work periods are included in the calculation: in Ukraine from January 1, 1991, to February 23, 2022, which is before the start of the SMO. For the DPR and LPR, the period is from May 11, 2014, to December 31, 2022. For the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, it is from February 24 to December 31, 2022.
One pension point (coefficient) is accrued for each full year worked during these specified periods. The recalculation is done only upon application to the SFR with the necessary documents confirming the work experience. By the end of June, the Social Fund had already received over 2,000 applications.
According to the Ministry of Labor, this law is expected to allow for the recalculation of pensions for more than 200,000 Russians who worked in Ukraine, the DPR and LPR territories, as well as in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, during these periods.
For the new constituent entities of the Federation, the 15-year work experience limit has been lifted – even those who do not meet this period can expect pension payments. This acknowledges the long-standing instability in Ukraine, where many enterprises ceased operations as early as 2014.
There will be no recalculation of pensions that were assigned before the law`s effective date, as the law does not have retroactive force. The new payment amount will be based on the date the citizen submits their application, but it will not be effective earlier than July 1, 2025.
Naturally, Russian pensioners are concerned about whether the additional financial burden on the Social Fund will negatively affect other insurance pensions received by individuals not connected with Ukraine.
According to the financial and economic justification for the bill, additional pension expenditures in the new regions will amount to 7.6 billion rubles in 2025 and 8.1 billion rubles in 2026. For comparison, the SFR receives about 6 trillion rubles per year from employers` insurance contributions. It is easy to calculate that the total burden will increase by approximately 0.1% – a negligible amount in the grand scheme of things.
Alexander Safonov, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, believes the law primarily defines the procedure for payments to those Russians who are *only* going to retire in the future.
— «Suppose a citizen of Russia, or someone who later became a citizen of Russia, started working in Ukraine in 1991 when they were 18 years old,» he says. «This work experience will be counted for them. Those who worked in Ukraine and have already been assigned a pension will not have anything recalculated. As is known, the law does not have retroactive effect. And someone who started working at 18 in `91 is only 52 today and has several years until retirement age. This is whose work experience will be counted when it`s time to retire.»
— How many people can claim a work experience recalculation due to the new regulation?
— «I cannot say, and no one can say today. The population census of these new regions and specifically persons who have reached retirement age is currently underway. There is no exact data yet. Everything depends on the number of people who apply for pension payments, including the number of those who have Russian citizenship. They had enough time to obtain passports.»
— Work experience is counted for specific periods defined by law. But many pensioners worked in Ukraine for twenty or thirty years. Is this work experience counted for them and according to what scheme?
— «Everything is counted. Since we do not have a unified database with the Pension Fund of Ukraine, the procedure for counting work experience is done by providing records in the work book that confirm the existence of work experience, as well as documents confirming the conclusion of employment contracts. If these documents have been lost for various reasons, local authorities participate in restoring the work experience. The applicant can involve witnesses who can confirm their work at an enterprise during a specific period. It`s understandable that many archives were lost during the hostilities, and people are not to blame for this.»
Everything will depend on confirmed work experience. If there is no such possibility, payments will be made at the level of the minimum subsistence level in the Russian Federation until confirmation is provided.
This scheme was adopted directly when assigning pensions in the Donetsk and Luhansk People`s Republics.
— And if the applicant has the necessary documents in order, will their pension be the same as in Russia or, still, lower?
— «Pension legislation is the same for all citizens of the country. When assigning pensions to residents of the DPR and LPR, analogous enterprises in the neighboring Rostov region were used as a benchmark, and they were accrued the same payments as Rostov pensioners. This experience will be applied in the new territories.»
