The State Duma approved the increase in pensions of Russians over the living wage

On March 21, 2019, the State Duma of Russia (lower house of parliament) approved at its plenary meeting a government draft law on raising pensions over the cost of living. It is assumed that the Federation Council of Russia (the upper house of parliament) will consider the draft law on March 27, 2019.




It should be noted that this legislative initiative was developed by the government to implement a number of social provisions voiced by Vladimir Putin in his message to the Federal Assembly on February 20, 2019. According to the president, the fight against poverty in Russia is now a priority for the state. Therefore, such a lightning reaction of the executive and legislative branches of government is not surprising and quite understandable.

After the law is approved by the Federation Council and signed by the head of state, the following calculation procedure will be applied. Moreover, it will be exactly the same for payments to low-income pensioners.

First, a social supplement will be established in the amount necessary to bring the material support of a pensioner to a living wage in the region, and then indexation of pensions and monthly cash payments will be carried out. In addition, this law provides for recalculation under the new rules from January 1, 2019, i.e. there will be surcharges that pensioners have not received for one reason or another this year. In general, these changes will lead to the fact that the material support of non-working pensioners will annually exceed the subsistence level by the amount of indexation.