The PFR Board had a meeting chaired by Russian Pension Fund head Anton Drozdov in Moscow today to sum up results of the Fund’s activity in the first half of 2017 and set tasks for the second half of the year. State Secretary and Deputy Labor and Social Protection Minister Andrei Pudov, members of the PFR Board, and heads of all PFR regional offices participated in the meeting by videoconferencing means.
All pensions and benefits of the PFR are paid across the country fully and on time in 2017.
In January 2017, pensioners received a lump sum of 5,000 rubles. The money was paid to all pensioners living in Russia without exception, both civilian and military; their total number was 43.7 million. As much as 221.7 billion rubles were allotted for those payments.
Insurance pensions of 31.4 million non-working pensioners grew by 5.8% in 2017 (by 5.4% on February 1 and by 0.38% on April 1). In August, the Pension Fund conducted the annual adjustment of insurance pensions of over 9.1 million pensioners, who were working in 2016. As a result, an average annual old-age insurance pension amounted to 13,700 rubles in 2017 (161% of the pensioner’s subsistence minimum).
State pensions, including social pensions, of working and non-working pensioners grew by 1.5% on April 1, 2017. The pension raise was enjoyed by 3.9 million pensioners. As a result, an average annual social pension stood at 8,800 rubles in 2017 (103.4% of the pensioner’s subsistence minimum). An average annual social pension of children with disabilities and persons with lifelong disabilities of the first group amounted to 13,200 rubles.
Same as before, there are no pensioners in Russia in 2017 with a monthly income below the pensioner’s subsistence minimum established in the region of residence. All non-working pensioners receive social supplements, which increase their pensions to the pensioner’s subsistence minimum. In 2017, PFR federal social supplements are received by almost 4 million people.
The size of monthly social benefits received by 15.5 million federal benefit holders grew by 5.4% on February 1, 2017.
On the whole, the PFR expenditures on paying pensions in the first half of 2017 reached 3.5 trillion rubles, or 389.9 billion rubles more than in the relevant period of 2016; the expenditures on social benefits amounted to 225 billion rubles, or grew by 7.8 billion rubles year-on-year.
While implementing the program of state support to families with children, PFR territorial offices issued over 470,000 maternity capital certificates in 2017. As a result, the certificates have been issued to 8.2 million Russian families in over ten years of the program.
The most popular way of using maternity capital is still an improvement of living conditions; this option is chosen by 92% of all applicants. Since the time the maternity capital program was launched, almost 5 million Russian families have improved their living conditions, including 3.1 million families which fully or partially repaid their mortgage loans with maternity capital funds. Over 1.8 million families improved their living conditions without borrowings.
Also, the PFR received 449,000 applications for spending maternity capital on education of children, 3,600 applications for adding maternity capital funds to the mother’s funded pension, and 90 applications for using the money for social adaptation and integration of children with disabilities.
Some 58% of maternity capital certificate holders have fully spent their funds.
Maternity capital amounts to 453 026 rubles in 2017. Maternity capital is granted to families where children who meet the program terms are either born or adopted before December 31, 2018. There are no deadlines on the issue of a certificate and the spending of maternity capital funds.
The Pension Fund continues the energetic development of its electronic services. The functions of the personal account section of the PFR website broadened a lot in 2017; practically all types of PFR payments, such as the assignment of pensions, monthly social benefits, and federal social supplements to pensions, the choice of a package of social services, the request for maternity capital, and so on, as well as information about every assigned social payment are now available in this format.
More than 3.5 million people used online services of the personal account section in the first half of 2017. Ten new services are due to become available in the personal account section before the end of this year. Importantly, PFR online services can be accessed not only on the Pension Fund website and the state services’ portal, but also in the mobile application for smart phones presented by the PFR in spring of this year.
Given the development of online services, the Pension Fund has observed an increase in the number of online applications for the assignment of pensions. The share of citizens who have applied for the assignment of a pension or a change of the pension delivery method online stands at 62% on the average across Russia in 2017. In some regions, the indicator exceeds 90%: these include the Republic of Karelia (95.7%), the Republic of Buryatia (94.8%), the Republic of Adygeya (93.2%), the Tambov region (93,1%), and the Volgograd region (93%).
In 2017, the PFR continues to subsidize regional social programs of Russian constituent territories. An overall sum of 1 billion rubles has been distributed in subsidies, including 525.1 million rubles for building ten social service facilities, 400.0 million rubles for repairing social service facilities, and procuring technical equipment, durable goods, and vehicles for mobile teams, and 50.0 million rubles for organizing computer classes for non-working pensioners. Some 50.0 million rubles were assigned for targeted social assistance in case of emergency situations and natural calamities.
Also in 2017, the Pension Fund carries on two extensive federal projects, i.e. the Federal Register of Persons with Disabilities (FRPD) and the Unified State Social Security Information System (USSSIS). The launch of the FRPD and USSSIS projects makes it possible to keep record of the entire range of social benefits enjoyed by all categories of citizens who receive state social support from budgets of all levels. The projects increase the efficiency of social expenditures and awareness of citizens of their entitlement to social protection.
The Federal Register of Persons with Disabilities contains information about the assignment of a disability status, rehabilitation programs recommended by socio-medical assessment boards and fulfilled, as well as other social benefits of persons with disabilities. It helps avoid multiple and multidirectional document flow between government agencies and spares a person with disabilities the need to provide documents certifying one’s entitlement to services. Thanks to the FRPD, the government receives statistical data in a one-stop regime for analyzing programs of assistance to persons with disabilities by any parameter, such as the provision with technical means for rehabilitation or education services.
The FRPD was commissioned as an information system on January 1, 2017. The trial run of the personal account section and the FRPD mobile application began in late 2016. In 2017, a great deal was done to connect every agency, both suppliers and users of FRPD information, to the system, in particular, at the level of Russian constituent territories. There are plans in 2018 to expand the list of information suppliers and the scope of information submitted to the register, in addition to developing functions of the personal account section, which will be expanded with theme forums, and the integration between the FRPD and the ISSSIS.
The ISSSIS will accumulate and supply government agencies with up-to-date information about personified social protection of the Russian population. The fact that such information will be available in one source will give the authorities a full idea of social protection of every particular citizen and help them decide whether he or she needs a particular social service.
In 2017, the PFR finalized the development of the ISSSIS platform, began its trial run, and reached the final stage of connecting government agencies, which supply and use the information, to the system. The full-scale operation of the ISSSIS will begin in January 2018.