PRESS: Russian ministry offers no pensions for well off pensioners

MOSCOW, Sep 23 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Finance Ministry has proposed abolishing pension payments to working pensioners whose annual income exceeds 500,000 rubles or 1 million rubles and the measure could touch about 90,000 pensioners, Vedomosti business daily reported Friday citing four federal officials.

The ministry also proposed abolishing a 4,559 defined benefit to pensioners whose monthly income exceeds 2.5 living wages – about 22,000 rubles – which may touch about 2 million retirees. A federal official told the daily that the definite benefit, paid regardless of a labor experience or an amount of pension points, is the only thing that makes pensions at least somewhat relevant.

Non-payment of pensions to those whose annual income exceeds 1 million rubles will add about 450 billion rubles to the 2017–2019 federal budget or about 150 billion rubles per year in the three-year period, Vedomosti reported.

On September 14, Labor and Social Protection Minister Maxim Topilin said the Russian government will not increase pension payments for working pensioners in 2017–2019 but it has envisaged a special mechanism for compensation for underpaid pensions after working pensioners retire.

(63.7942 rubles – U.S. $1)

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