The PFR Board had a meeting in Moscow under the chairmanship of Board Chairman of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation Anton Drozdov to sum up results of the PFR performance in 2015 and to discuss the achievement of priority tasks set for the Fund in 2016. PFR Board members and heads of all PFR regional offices connected by a video-link took part in the meeting.
Board Chairman of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation Anton Drozdov was the principal speaker.
The 2015 PFR budget was executed with 7,126.6 billion ruble revenue, or 115.7% of the 2014 budget execution level (967.6 billion rubles more than in 2014).
Revenue unrelated to the financing of funded pensions stood at 6,957.4 billion rubles, or 114.5% of the 2014 budget execution level.
Revenue related to the cumulative part of the Fund budget reached 169.2 billion rubles in 2015.
Inter-budget transfers from the federal budget to the PFR budget amounted to 3,088.7 billion rubles in 2015, while budgets of Russian constituent territories transferred 3.0 billion rubles to the PFR budget.
The sum of mandatory pension insurance contributions made to the PFR budget in 2015 stood at 3,871.9 billion rubles, while contributions from citizens and insuring parties made under the program of state co-funding of pensions reached 7.114 billion rubles.
The budget was executed with 7,670.3 billion ruble expenditure.
Expenditures unrelated to the financing of funded pensions stood at 7,123.9 billion rubles. Expenditures related to the cumulative part of the Fund budget reached 546.3 billion rubles in 2015.
The PFR budget assigned 7.0 trillion rubles for the fulfillment of public normative obligations in 2015 (or 0.9 trillion rubles more than in 2014), which ensured the timely and full performance of all pension and benefit obligations and an increase of pensions and financial security of citizens.
Assignment, indexation and payment of pensions
The Pension Fund assigned 2.6 million pensions in 2015. In the end of last year, the number of pensioners served by the PFR reached 42.7 million, including residents of Crimea.
In 2015, insurance pensions of more than 39 million Russians were raised by 11.4%. State pensions, including social pensions of more than 3 million Russians, went up 10.3%. Monthly social benefits grew by 5.5%. Insurance pensions of pensioners, who worked in 2014, were reviewed in August. Pensions of 11.9 million people were raised by approximately 184.81 rubles.
An average old-age insurance pension amounted to 12,830 rubles last year, while social pensions averaged 8,302 rubles (1.8 and 1.16 vs. the pensioner’s subsistence minimum, respectively). They accordingly grew by 1,261 and 754 rubles.
An average pension of persons with war-related disabilities and WWII veterans reached 28,961 rubles and 31,567 rubles, accordingly. Given social benefits (monthly social benefits and supplements), their income stood at 34,442 rubles and 37,048 rubles, respectively, (the annual growth by 2,559 and 3,370 rubles, respectively). The income of widows of servicemen, who died in the line of duty, receiving two pensions, amounted to 26,940 rubles (the annual growth by 2,715 rubles).
The minimal financial security of non-working pensioners, including social supplements to pensions, was maintained at the level of the pensioner’s subsistence minimum in relevant constituent territories of the Russian Federation.
More than 6 million pensioners applied for payment of pension savings, which PFR began in the middle of 2012, by the end of 2015.
Some 95% of the applicants received their pension savings in a lump sum. More than 5,300 decisions were made on term pensions, and 30,500 on cumulative parts of old-age pensions.
An average size of a lump-sum payment neared 10,000 rubles, a term payment amounted to 916 rubles, and a cumulative part to 693 rubles.
Pension indexation in 2016
On February 1, PFR increased insurance pensions of non-working pensioners by 4%. As a result of the indexation, the average old-age insurance pension, including the fixed payment, currently stands at 13,200 rubles. The pension point value has also gone up, from 71 rubles 41 kopecks to 74 rubles 27 kopecks.
The monthly social benefit was also increased on February 1, by 7%. The rise was enjoyed by more than 15 million federal benefit holders.
A decision on the second indexation to the 2015 inflation level will be made at the end of the first half of the year, depending on the financial capacities of the government.
Administering of insurance contributions
Being the administrator of mandatory pension and healthcare insurance contributions, the Fund continued to collect insurance contributions in 2015. The Pension Fund collected 3,864.4 billion rubles in pension insurance contributions in 2015, or 4.6% more than in 2014. Mandatory healthcare insurance contributions reached 921.3 billion rubles or 24.5% more than in 2014, due to the changed tax base excluding the upper limit.
As of December 31, 2015, mandatory pension insurance contributions’ arrear amounted to 1.2% of the total sum of accrued contributions across the Russian Federation.
Please be advised that the number of insurers submitting their reports in the electronic form has been growing year on year. The share of electronic settlements reached 92.8% in 2015, compared to 89.7% in 2014, and 87.5% in 2013.
Maternity capital
In furtherance of the program of state support to families with children, PFR territorial offices issued 1.0 million maternity capital certificates in 2015. As of today, state certificates have been issued to almost 7 million Russian families.
In all, more than 3.88 million applications have been filed for using maternity capital since the beginning of access to those funds, including 3.6 million applications (over 92%) for improvement of living conditions, 274,400 for paid education services and 3,000 for funded pensions.
On the whole, maternity capital certificates have been issued for 90% or second, third and so on babies born to eligible families after January 1, 2007. More than 56% of certificate holders have used the funds either fully or partially, using main spending options.
A number of legislative measures were taken in 2015 in order to step up control for the proper use of maternity capital. It was prohibited to spend maternity capital on repaying loans for improvement of living conditions received at microfinance organizations.
It was also ruled that maternity capital can be spent on repaying loans for improvement of living conditions received only at credit consumer cooperatives, which have been operating for at least three years since the date of their state registration.
PFR territorial offices were vested with the power to check the issue of documents by making inquiries with relevant authorities in processing requests for spending maternity capital funds.
March 31, 2016, was the last day when the Pension Fund accepted applications for a one-time benefit of 20,000 rubles. The provision was added to the anti-crisis plan of the government. Since May 2015, the applications were filed by families residing in the territory of the Russian Federation entitled to maternity capital certificates as of December 31, 2015. The Pension Fund accepted more than 2 million applications for the one-time benefit to a total sum of 41 billion rubles.
Implementation of social programs in Russian constituent territories
PFR has been taking part in the implementation of social programs of Russian constituent territories aimed to improve life quality of senior citizens and persons with disabilities for 16 years. PFR provides subsidies to Russian constituent territories on the co-funding terms. A total of 27.7 billion rubles have been assigned over that period: 4.4 billion rubles for construction and renovation, 10.5 billion rubles for repairs, and 3 billion rubles for equipment. A total of 7.7 billion rubles were spent on targeted assistance to non-working pensioners.
In the year 2015 alone, social programs involving PFR subsidies improved living conditions and social services for more than 37,000 residents of social institutions and the capacity of social institutions grew by more than 900 beds. In all, PFR allocated 987.1 million rubles in subsidies to Russian constituent territories in 2015 for their social programs improving life quality for senior citizens and persons with disabilities. Also, in 2015, PFR provided the first subsidies to Russian constituent territories for computer awareness of pensioners – more than 40 million rubles. A total of 41,600 pensioners were trained. This is an extremely important undertaking, which gives remote access to public services. These funds have a high social value. Despite the marked development of physical infrastructures in social institutions, the waiting line for vacancies has practically not reduced. There are still 2,800 persons waiting for vacancies in general residential institutions and about 13,000 are waiting for vacancies in psychiatric residential institutions. A fifth of the institutions are old or dilapidated.