Consistent with the April amendments to the Federal Law on State Social Security and the Federal Law on the Subsistence Minimum in the Russian Federation, the rules of calculating the social supplement, which raises the pension to the regional pensioner’s subsistence minimum, have been reviewed.
The earlier procedure linked the social supplement’s amount to indexations of pensions and monthly social benefits. As a result, indexations increased the pension and the monthly social benefit and proportionately reduced the social supplement. In some cases, pensions did not change after the indexation although remained on the level of the subsistence minimum.
The amendments stipulate that pensioners’ income comprising pensions, social benefits, and other forms of social security will first be increased with the social supplement to reach the subsistence minimum before they are subjected to indexation. Indexation will be added to the pensioner’s subsistence minimum, and the social supplement will not decrease.
The amendments took effect on January 1, 2019, and applied to earlier indexations. Please note that insurance pensions of non-working pensioners grew by 7.05% in January, monthly social benefits increased by 4.3% in February, and state pensions were increased by 2% in April.
Pensions and monthly social benefits increased as result of indexations will be reviewed and approved in new amounts in May. Both the federal social supplement provided by the Russian Pension Fund and the regional social supplement provided by social security agencies in Russian constituent territories will be revisited.
Pensioners do not need to file any requests with the Russian Pension Fund and social security agencies. About 4 million pensioners receiving the federal social supplement, and 2.5 million pensioners receiving the regional social supplement will receive extra money.