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The authorities are deciding what to do with the pensions of Russians before the upcoming elections to the State Duma. Obviously, the second indexation of pensions this year is necessary, but it carries risks for the budget, so it can be replaced by a one-time payment to pensioners, the Vedomosti newspaper writes.
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The authorities are deciding what to do with the pensions of Russians before the upcoming elections to the State Duma. Obviously, the second indexation of pensions this year is necessary, but it carries risks for the budget, so it can be replaced by a one-time payment to pensioners, the Vedomosti newspaper writes, citing two federal officials.

In the case of indexation, there will be enough money only until the end of the year, but already in February 2017, due to an increase in the base, the planned indexation for inflation will require large expenses, the official of the financial and economic bloc said. The Ministry of Finance opposes this.

A one-time payment can be made if there is money for it, an official of the government apparatus explained to the publication. According to him, "the Ministry of Finance will look for these additional sources of financing, but they are in no hurry to do it - there is no money, they say."

There is no specific date when a decision on the second indexation should be made, two officials said: but with a high degree of probability - before the end of August.

There are all calculations for indexation and for a one-time payment, but, according to the interlocutors of the publication, the decision should be made by the president or the prime minister. "If they decide what is needed, and the money will be found," the official of the financial and economic bloc is sure.

Information "Vedomosti" commented on the government. They assured that they did not refuse to re-index pensions, Interfax reports. "The law provides for re-indexation based on the results of the first half of 2016, taking into account the situation in the economy and the social sphere. It is this issue that is currently being considered in the government," the press service of Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets told the agency, answering the question whether the refusal to additional indexation and its replacement with other forms of support for pensioners.

Recall that so far this year pensions have been indexed only by 4% with inflation of 12.9%. In addition, since January 1, 2016, the indexation of pensions for working pensioners has been canceled.

In June 2016, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called the restriction on indexation of pensions a "temporary measure". He admitted that inflation indexation could appear as early as 2017.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed similar hopes last December. “I would really like that we could at least be able to resolve this issue based on the actual inflation of 2016. I don’t know if this will work or not,” he said.

On June 20, Rosstat reported that the real income of Russians in May 2016 decreased by 5.7% compared to the same period last year. The average nominal salary increased by 6.2% in May, while the real one fell by 1%. According to Rosstat, the number of people with incomes below the subsistence level in Russia in the first quarter of 2016 increased to 22.7 million people (against 14.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2015).

In May of this year, during a trip to Crimea, Dmitry Medvedev uttered the famous phrase. In response to residents' complaints about low pensions, the head of government said that the state had no money to increase pensions. "There's just no money now. We'll find the money - we'll index it," the prime minister promised, ending the conversation with an awkward parting word: "Stay here, wish you all the best, good mood and health!" Medvedev's phrase became the occasion for numerous jokes on the Web and topped the rating of Runet memes.

Elections to the State Duma will be held on September 18 under a mixed system: 225 deputies will be elected according to party lists, 225 - in single-mandate districts. On June 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on calling elections, from that day the election campaign officially began in Russia. Legislative Assembly elections will be held on September 18 in 39 regions of the country, direct elections of senior officials will be held in seven subjects, and about five thousand municipal campaigns are planned.

The second indexation of pensions in 2016 can be replaced by a one-time payment, which will be carried out on the eve of the elections. The newspaper writes about this Vedomosti ” referring to two federal officials.

Everyone understands that indexation of pensions is needed before the elections, one of the sources of the publication said, but everyone also understands that it will completely unbalance the entire system. Therefore, according to him, a compromise is now being discussed - one-time payments pensioners.

If the indexation of pensions affects only the autumn months of the current year, then the government has such money. But there is no money for the indexation of pensions in 2017. Therefore, a compromise is one-time payments, the most acceptable and less expensive option for the budget.

A one-time payment can be made if there is money for it, an official from the government apparatus explained to the publication.

“The Ministry of Finance will look for these additional sources of financing, but they are in no hurry to do it - there is no money, they say,” the source said.

Recall that this year pensions were indexed only by 4% with inflation of 12.9%. In addition, since January 1, 2016, the indexation of pensions for working pensioners has been canceled.

Thus, if the government's proposal is accepted, then instead of receiving a permanent increase in pensions in line with inflation, pensioners will have to be content with a lump sum payment "of an as yet unknown amount."

There are all calculations for indexation and for a one-time payment. “The decision is up to the prime minister, and maybe even the president, if they decide what is needed and the money is found,” the source said.

Earlier, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the residents of Crimea that the authorities have no money to index pensions. In a conversation on the streets of Feodosia, to the indignant cries of pensioners, Medvedev said: "Indexation, it is nowhere, we did not accept it at all, there is simply no money now." After that, the Prime Minister wished the residents of Crimea: "".

After that, the singer and comedian Semyon Slepakov wrote a song to the well-known phrase of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev "".

July 1 "Red Line" that the head of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation Anton Siluanov called on Russians to save for their pensions on their own.

“In Soviet times, citizens would not even dream in a nightmare that the Ministry of Finance would offer workers to take care of their future pensions themselves, saving as much as they can from their earnings. And today the Minister of Finance Siluanov and his department are doing just that, being completely sure that they will not bear any responsibility for their adventures,”

The material is commented on:
Pavel Grudinin Yuri Boldyrev
The salaries of state employees, despite a sharp increase in early 2018, will no longer be lower, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Olga Golodets said on March 13. Earlier, Minister of Labor and Social Protection Maxim Topilin explained the sharp increase in salaries for state employees since January 2018 by the execution of Vladimir Putin's "May decrees".

“We have reached the normal execution of decrees since January, as it should be ... Last year, in these categories, for which there should have been 200%, we should have reached about 180% in the fourth quarter,” the minister explained. The point is that according to the "May decrees", by 2018 the average salary of doctors, university professors and researchers should be twice the average for the region.

According to RBC, employees of Moscow State University in February received 2.5-3 times more than usual. The total amount of payments reached 120 thousand rubles. Physicians also received higher salaries. Moreover, in the Department of Health of the capital, RBC reported that in early March, the heads of the capital's hospitals were instructed to bring salaries in line with the May decrees. Separate facts of wage growth in the regions are also given.

Rosstat drew a general picture for the country. According to the agency, the average salary of doctors rose to 72.4 thousand rubles (an increase of 28%), nurses to 33.5 thousand rubles (56%), social workers to 32.2 thousand rubles (26%). Research workers began to receive an average of 87.1 thousand rubles (37%), and university teachers - 77.2 thousand rubles (21%).

At the same time, you should not delude yourself with average figures. The spread of payments by region is huge. If in Chukotka doctors receive an average of up to 174 thousand rubles, then in Kabardino-Balkaria from 40.5 thousand rubles. Moscow teachers have the right to count on 80.6 thousand rubles, while their colleagues from Dagestan on 19.9 thousand rubles. Researchers are best off in Yamal, where they are paid 172,000 rubles each, while in the Leningrad Region they have to make do with 36,000 rubles.

To implement such large-scale payments annually, 200 billion rubles will be required. In 2018, 194.8 billion rubles were allocated for these purposes, which is 108 billion rubles more than in 2017. The government claims that in the coming years there will also be enough money and the limits will not be exceeded.

According to Lyudmila Kravchenko, an expert at the Sulakshin Center, the bureaucracy resorted to all sorts of tricks in order to achieve the necessary accountability. So, instead of bringing the salary of state employees to the average for the region, as stated in Putin's decrees, they brought the average monthly income from labor activity, which is not the same thing.

In addition, the increase in the "average" salary was achieved in a favorite way for managers - an increase in payments to themselves. As a result, a measly 5.7% of all medical staff in healthcare receive salaries over 50,000 rubles, and over 50% of medical workers earn less than 20,000 rubles.

It also failed to create 25 million "high-performance jobs". Even taking into account the fact that officials have changed the methodology for determining "high performance." If earlier it was “the average level of GDP per job in the six largest economies in the world,” then it became “the average level of wages at an enterprise, which should have exceeded the average for the region.” And still, instead of 25 million, only 16 million jobs were created.

It is worth recalling that the "May Decrees" are broader than just wages and jobs. These are as many as 218 instructions in 11 areas of the country's development. Even according to the government, only 76% of what was planned was completed.

According to economist Mikhail Delyagin, the economic bloc in the Medvedev government has been sabotaging the implementation of the "May Decrees" all these years. In one of the years, the economist is indignant, unused funds in the accounts of the federal budget increased by 1.5 trillion rubles. And at the same time, the Cabinet of Ministers announced that it needed 1 trillion rubles to carry out Putin's orders, which allegedly did not exist.

Delyagin says that the regional authorities were charged with the responsibility of implementing decrees, but they did not allocate money for this. The regions had to get out as best they could. Wealthy territories who had funds directed them to social needs, the rest took loans from commercial banks. “This year, the Ministry of Finance caught on, and the most terrible regions came under external financial management,” the economist said.

At the same time, he compared the situation with the USSR, where there was a rigid tariff scale that linked all levels of the hierarchy from the cleaner to the director. Now the authorities can afford to pay a large salary, coaxing the environment with high payments and allocating money to the rest on a residual basis. "Mr. Topilin's statements give the impression of an absolute pre-election PR," Delyagin said.

However, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov denies the pre-election nature of what is happening. According to him, such decisions require advance planning. “Wage growth is not a momentary process,” he assures.

This can be described as an urgent, panicky bribery, - said the "SP" economist, publicist Yuri Boldyrev. - There is a complete analogy with the President's message to the Federal Assembly, which was postponed from autumn to a moment just two weeks before the elections. We must soberly understand that everything that is done in the very, very pre-election period is nothing more than an attempt to deceive.

Pavel Grudinin, a candidate for the presidency of the Russian Federation, commented on the unexpectedly high payments to state employees on the eve of the elections:

People explain the "golden rain" in January-February by the implementation of the "May" decrees of the President of the Russian Federation. However, these decrees were announced back in 2012. Then the task was set to significantly increase the income of state employees by 2018. However, for six years these tasks were reluctantly remembered. The execution of the "decrees" was blamed on the regions, which were obviously incapable of doing this. By the way, 10 out of 11 decrees were failed. For example, we have not seen 25 million new high-tech jobs, increased competitiveness of Russia in the world and an increase in the standard of living of citizens.

But on the eve of the elections, the salaries of teachers, researchers and doctors were sharply increased. For example, Moscow State University claims that the entire scientific and teaching staff received a five-fold (!) monthly salary. It is also reported about "stimulus payments", awards in honor of March 8. Why such generosity?

The point is clearly not in the "decrees", which the current government will again forget after March 18. The point, apparently, is the desire by hook or by crook to achieve the re-election of the current head of state. Hence the unexpected, but quite understandable "pre-election" concern for state employees.

I am sure that most of our citizens will not buy into the temporary "generosity" of the government. And all because people are tired of frequent promises and rare handouts. Last year, the elderly were given 5,000 rubles each instead of raising pensions. So this time they made people happy with “charity”. But this will not increase the credibility of the authorities. Too often our fellow citizens have been mistaken in believing the next promises.

The people want a better life not only before the elections, but always. We need not one-time payments, but consistently high salaries. I'm sure we can provide people decent life. After all, everything for this in the country is available. All that is needed is political will.

The government promised to find and allocate almost 100 billion rubles by the end of this year for payments to Russian old people. According to officials, the money will be used to equalize pensions and the cost of living for pensioners. And this, it turns out, is not the only "gift" from the Cabinet - as reported, at the beginning of next year, old-age payments can be indexed even higher than the inflation rate. The fact that official inflation, according to the forecasts of the authorities, should not even exceed 4% is a completely different matter.

Whether such steps will help deal with the decline in real pensions, which have been falling since 2014, remains a mystery. But it is already clear that these steps are aimed at the electorate - according to pensions will increase just before the presidential election scheduled for spring 2018. Generous, however, the pre-election gifts of the authorities can not be called either, because if you take into account the size of the average pension, the average increase will be in the range of 600 rubles. This will be enough only for inexpensive Russian-made products, the main consumers of which are pensioners.

Election gifts

Before the spring presidential elections, officials decided to "appease" representatives of the main electoral cluster by promising pensioners another increase to their very modest pensions. The first thing that the head of the PFR, Anton Drozdov, promised was the allocation of almost 100 billion rubles from the state budget and their distribution among poor pensioners in 69 subjects of the federation. As reported, with this money, the Fund plans to raise the pensions of low-income pensioners to the established poverty line - the subsistence level for the elderly. Recall that today it is 8.5 thousand rubles. About 4 million old people whose pension is, in fact, below this limit can count on additional payments. The official noted that the amount of funds allocated for these purposes is decreasing from year to year, which is direct evidence of the improvement in the well-being of pensioners.

The second gift, which already concerns all pensioners, should be the Foundation's increase in pensions by 4.5%. Such steps are being taken as part of a strategy of real growth in pensions, which the elderly have not seen for the past 3 years. It is quite logical that for real growth, the increase should exceed inflationary indicators. And a 4.5% increase meets just such criteria, because the projected inflation should be about 3.5-3.7%. Funds for such an increase will be taken primarily from oil and gas revenues, which, as you know, exceeded the forecasted figures and brought “extra” money to the treasury. They, as it should be in a democratic state, the government decided to put them on social obligations.

True, the increase can hardly be called significant. Based on the average national pension of 13.7 thousand rubles, the increase should be about 616 rubles. The lower the pension, of course, the lower the increase. Another question is whether the difference between the increase in prices and the increase will be really noticeable for the elderly? After all, it is this difference that will be the real increase in pensions. So, if the forecasts of the Ministry of Economics come true, then inflation will be 3.7%, and then real pensions will grow by 0.8 percentage points. Can such growth cover food inflation, which has exceeded 30% over the past 3 years?! The question is rhetorical.

However, the Federation Council does not see anything sensational in the decisions of the FIU and the government. According to Valery Ryazansky, head of the social policy committee, there is nothing new in such initiatives: both raising pensions to the subsistence level and indexation are nothing more than legal requirements that must be met. So in fact, this is the minimum that the authorities are obliged to do for pensioners. And it is by no means necessary to put an electoral meaning into it.

Positive Decisions

However, finding the positive in all this is not so difficult. It is known that pensioners are the main electorate, regardless of the status and scale of the elections. For them, this is a whole event and an increase in pension at this point will be a nice bonus for electoral activity. Naturally, this will play into the hands of the authorities, who will certainly receive political dividends. The political preferences of the elderly are understandable and so - the current president among them, according to sociology, is supported by 76% of pensioners. And a small increase can contribute to the activity of those who this time decided to refuse to vote and force them to come to the polling station. Plus, some have even found economic benefits.

For example, the head of the Development Center Valery Mironov, quoted by Gazeta.ru, calls pensioners the main consumers of inexpensive Russian products - clothing, food, shoes, etc. The increase will certainly increase the purchasing power of the elderly, which means that the domestic producer will receive more revenue. In the context of import substitution, according to the expert, this is the only true policy. Recall that these will not be the first pre-election bonuses - in January, pensioners have already received 5 thousand rubles of lump-sum payments, which were promised to them in the fall, before the parliamentary elections, as compensation for the lack of indexation. The promise, as we know, worked.

Not only did those who were supposed to get into parliament get into parliament, but the statistics also got better. According to HSE monitoring data, lump-sum aid payments raised the size of real pension payments by more than 39%! But even the notorious 5 thousand rubles did not save pensions from falling - taking into account them, the decline over the past 3 years amounted to almost 7%. All this, according to economists, leaves the elderly among those demographic groups that are most at risk of falling below the poverty line.