State pension co-financing program finishing in Russia
Citizens who have accumulated less than 350,856 rubles over 10 years or their heirs will be paid the entire amount
The programme of state co-financing of citizens' pension savings, which started 10 years ago, is coming to an end in Russia. In 2025, for the last time, funds from the national welfare Fund will be allocated for these purposes — 551.7 million rubles. At the same time, Russians will have the opportunity to receive up to 412,000 rubles of pension savings, they can be collected in one payment or choose a monthly supplement to the pension. Read more about who will have the opportunity to use this right, what the program participants won and what alternative they prepared for future pensioners in return — details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
15% of the population of the republic actually participated
The state co-financing program for the formation of pension savings was attended by Russian citizens who, in the period from October 1, 2008 to December 31, 2014, applied for membership and made a down payment of at least 2,000 rubles per year by January 31, 2015. According to the data released by the Pension and Social Insurance Fund of Russia, about 15.85 million people have submitted an application to join this program since the beginning of its operation, but only about 6.1 million actually participated in it — the rest did not fulfill all the necessary conditions, did not transfer contributions to the pension account.
As a result, the total amount of contributions from the program participants amounted to about 40 billion rubles, that is, each participant contributed about 6,700 rubles on average. The maximum amount of co-financing by the state is 12,000 rubles, but only 20% of the program participants have made such a contribution at least once during all the years of its operation.
“In total, 587,900 Tatarstan citizens took part in the state co-financing program for the formation of pension savings," they informed Realnoe Vremya in the Department of the Social Fund of Russia in the Republic of Tatarstan.
Taking into account the fact that 4,003,016 people permanently lived in Tatarstan in January 2024, according to Rosstat, the share of residents of the republic who took part in the program is about 14.7% — less than the average in Russia.
As the office of the Pension and Social Insurance Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan explained to Realnoe Vremya, citizens can receive pension savings formed as a result of participation in the program upon retirement (or they will be paid to legal successors in case of death of a citizen):
- — lump sum — if the amount of the monthly payment due is less than 10% of the pensioner's subsistence minimum (currently 1,329 rubles);
- — in the form of a monthly payment during the entire period of retirement — if the amount of the monthly payment is more than 10% of the pensioner's subsistence level.
To determine the amount of the monthly payment, the amount of all savings should be divided by the expected period of their payment — 264 months, and compare the result with the size of the pensioner's living wage. A monthly payment is assigned if the total amount of pension savings is at least 350,856 rubles, the regional branch of the Pension and Social Insurance Fund of Russia clarified.
“It's better to buy shares”
Experts note the low popularity of the state co-financing program for the formation of pension savings, in which no more than a fifth of the population participated. They explain the weak interest of future pensioners in this method of saving for old age by low return on investments, a long waiting period for payments, the presence of time limits on co-financing and the general distrust of citizens towards the state pension system.
Razuvaev recommends saving not on a pension account, but on bank deposits, or even better, investing money in stocks, since today banking applications allow a more or less literate person to do this relatively safely:
“If you buy shares of reliable companies little by little during your life, place money on deposits, you should accumulate an appropriate amount by retirement. I recommend just buying some securities once a month for 5-10% of your income — you will receive dividends. And they can always be sold if something unexpected happens. You can also buy bonds, gold, precious metals.”
“They benefited anyway”
However, Nikita Krichevsky, Doctor of Economics, publicist, is convinced that those who invested in the state pension co-financing program definitely had a benefit:
Krichevsky noted that the program participants could save the same amounts differently — on a bank deposit, for example, but practice shows that people do not tend to purposefully save for old age — this is a feature of human psychology, therefore it is quite reasonable to transfer this function to the state.
New program — new conditions
One program of state co-financing of pension savings has ended, and another is beginning. On January 1, 2024, the federal law on the citizens' long-term savings program came into force.
Any Russian citizen over the age of 18 can take part in the new program. As part of the long-term savings program, participants increase their pension using personal savings or pension savings formed in their favor in the compulsory pension insurance system — OPS, and the state doubles the contributions made by participants subject to a number of conditions:
- — co-financing — up to 36,000 rubles per year;
- — the validity period of co-financing from the state is no more than three years after joining the program;
- — those who make annual contributions of at least 2,000 rubles can count on state support;
- — funds will be accumulated in non-governmental pension funds, which invest them in low-risk instruments under the control of the regulator.
In this program, the amount of co-financing depends on the income of the long-term savings program participant: if a citizen earns up to 80 thousand rubles per month, 1 ruble of the contribution will be 1 ruble from the state.
According to forecasts, by the end of 2024, more than 1.5 million people may join the long-term savings program.