The Russian Pension Fund has finalized the adjustment of pensions of most rural pensioners with due account of the amendments that took effect in the beginning of this year. Pensions of over 803,000 non-working rural pensioners were raised as a result.
Pensions were adjusted automatically, on the basis of documents in pensioners’ files. The adjustment increased an average pension by 1,300 rubles per month. People on Group 3 disability pension had their pensions increased by 667 rubles per month.
Insurance pensions of non-working rural pensioners were also raised on January 1. The 25% bonus was based on the increased amount of the fixed-rate payment, which currently stands at 5,334.19 rubles.
Whenever a rural pensioner receives a social supplement, which raises his or her pension to the pensioner’s subsistence minimum, the payment may not change or increase by a lesser amount than the received raise after the pension’s adjustment and indexation. This does not mean that a pension has not been increased: the social supplement is raised in advance. When a pension is assigned, it levels the pensioner’s benefits to the subsistence minimum. Each indexation or adjustment increases the size of the pension and simultaneously decreases the amount of the social supplement.
The adjustment of rural pensions continues. A pensioner can apply to the PFR and present documents certifying his or her entitlement to an increased fixed-rate payment. Applications filed before the end of 2019 will result in the adjustment of payments received since January 1 of this year. If an application is filed later, the pension will be raised in the month, which follows the month of application.
Please note that amendments increasing rural pensions took effect in 2019. Now rural pensioners enjoy a 25% raise of the fixed-rate payment assigned as part of their old-age and disability pensions. The raise has three conditions. First of all, the applicant must work in agriculture for at least 30 years. Secondly, the applicant must live in the countryside. Thirdly, he or she must not be working, i.e. there must be no mandatory pension contributions paid by employers on pensioners’ behalf.
The work record, which entitles rural pensioners to a higher fixed-rate payment, includes work for collective and state farms and other agricultural enterprises operating in the field of animal, crop, and fish farming.