Experts told whether old people can live on that kind of money
The cost of living for pensioners has more than doubled over the past 10 years. Namely: from 6,892 rubles per month to 13,290 rubles in 2024. Of course, the fact of a twofold increase in the pension minimum is in itself positive, especially for those approximately 4 million people whose incomes correspond exactly to this level. Although over the past 10 years, inflation has increased by about the same amount, so it is unlikely that minimum wage pensioners have begun to live richer.
The cost of living for pensioners (mainly those who do not have enough work experience for an insurance pension) has more than doubled over the past 10 years — to 13,290 rubles. This was reported by Associate Professor of the Russian University of Economics. Plekhanova Lyudmila Ivanova-Shvets. At the same time, she emphasizes that if someone, for various reasons, has a pension below the subsistence level, then payments from the regional or federal budgets “pull it up” to this level. But in general, the real amount of the pension is calculated according to the established formula, taking into account the number of pension points earned and adding a fixed part — a little more than 8 thousand rubles.
The cost of living in Russia (not only for pensioners) is indexed annually and established by the constituent entities of the Federation. For the working population, it averages 16.8 thousand rubles, for children almost 15 thousand rubles, and for pensioners — about 13.3 thousand.
As can be seen from these figures, although the elderly are “respected everywhere,” according to medical standards, they are given the least amount of money to live on. Indeed, how much does a veteran need given his more than modest demands? Bread and milk and watch some series on TV in the evening. But if from this amount (13 thousand) we subtract the payment for utilities — 5-7 thousand — then, probably, there may not always be enough for bread and milk…
What about this? estimate the doubling of the indicator in ten years?.
“A two-fold increase in the cost of living for pensioners is a good sign,” says economist Andrei Loboda, director of communications at BitRiver. “But we need to take into account that the purchasing power of the ruble has dropped significantly recently. Ideally, it would be nice to exceed the 20 thousand ruble mark in the next year in terms of the pension minimum: there are all possibilities for this.
It's hard to disagree with the economist. Over the past decade, inflation in the country was about 70%, that is, the growth of the cost of living outpaced consumer prices by about 3% per year. But this is compared with average inflation. And food inflation, as we know, is growing even faster. Plus, old people need medications, which are also expensive…
How can all these expenses be squeezed into 13 thousand and a few kopecks a month?
“Over the past 10 years, the very methodology for determining the living wage has changed,” says Pavel Kudyukin, a member of the Council of the Confederation of Labor of Russia, former Deputy Minister of Labor of the Russian Federation. – Until 2021, it was considered the “food basket” method. The set of products necessary to maintain the pensioner’s body in a relatively vigorous state was determined. And the cost of this food. And then everything was multiplied by two. That is, the first half was spent on food, and the second half was spent on everything else: clothes, shoes, payment for various services — say, hairdressers or transportation.
And since 2021, the calculation system has changed, PM began to be determined by a statistical method — simply as half of the median income.
— Both methods are not very objective, they contain underestimated data. Given the existing income differentiation in the country, it is difficult to calculate the real level of living wage. Here it would be more correct to calculate inflation not according to the scheme that Rosstat uses, but according to the very minimum subsistence level. That is, a set of products from the consumer basket that are becoming more expensive the most and which are purchased by the poor.
– Of course, you cannot deny yourself anything. But if a veteran does not often go to the pharmacy for medicine, if he has a supply of clothes and shoes from previous years, and if he buys social products at discounts, then, probably, 13 thousand a month will be enough for him to live on.