Russians shared their stories of acquiring individual pension coefficients
This year, women aged 58 and men over 63 are retiring, since 2024 is a transitional year in the implementation of the reform to raise the retirement age in Russia, which will continue until 2028. The size of the pension depends on the length of service, which must be at least 15 years, and the individual pension coefficients (points) accumulated during the period of work. And if there are few of them, then the employee will not be able to qualify for an old-age insurance pension and will have to be content with the social pension — the lowest in size. But this not very pleasant situation can be corrected: the missing points can be purchased, and this will be a completely legal operation. MK learned the stories of people who have already done this in practice.
A simple engineer from Kirov, Alexander Afanasyevich, is 67 years old. Having graduated from one of the Moscow technical universities many years ago, the man returned to his hometown and began his career as a junior researcher at one of the local research institutes. “I had the opportunity to build my life differently. At one time, I was awaiting assignment to Novosibirsk at Akademgorodok — I was a straight A student both at school and at the university. But I decided to return to Kirov, to my parents and my large family.”
According to our hero, there was a period in his life when he did not work: “My mother got sick, I dropped everything and looked after her. And for several years he dropped out of life, so to speak. Fortunately, we have our own house and land in Kirov. And all this time we fed ourselves from what we planted in the garden.”
And it was precisely this situation closer to retirement that made itself felt: “Everyone knows that in order to retire, it is not enough to reach the required age. You need to accumulate a certain amount of service and pension points. And this is precisely where problems arose. One of my friends advised me to buy pension points. I've never heard of this. But there was nowhere to go, I had to figure it out.”
Our hero was told how to buy the missing pension points at the Pension Fund (the predecessor of the current Social Fund of Russia, SFR). “First, I wrote an application and paid voluntary insurance premiums. My children covered part of the financial resources for me. Moreover, as it turned out, you can make such contributions not only in your own name, but also in the name of another person. The main thing is to make it before December 31 of the current year so that they are added to this year’s points. Experts explained to me that a person decides for himself how to pay voluntary contributions: at once, in several payments or monthly during the calendar year.”
Alexander Afanasyevich opened a personal account and determined the contribution amount himself: “The minimum is one minimum wage for 12 months. The maximum is eight times the minimum wage. I was 10 points short. And I had to pay a pretty penny for them — about 200,000 rubles. I wouldn’t have been able to handle that amount myself, but my children came to my aid again. I didn’t get into the weeds of mathematics and calculate everything myself. The foundation’s specialists helped me with that.”
Thus, as a Kirov resident said, it doesn’t matter how many years a person has left until retirement. You need to look at your year of retirement — have at least 15 years of insurance experience and 30 points (from 2025 -): “If you already have them (for this you need to work continuously for 20-25 years), then that means You have already earned the right to a pension and you don’t need to buy anything additional. You can sit at home without working, but you still won’t be able to retire early.”
But, as Alexander Afanasyevich noted, if you don’t sit at home idly, but continue to work, even if you already have the necessary length of service, then the number of pension points will increase. The more there are, the higher the pension will be. “But, to be honest, the increases there are minimal. For an average pension of 14,000 rubles, you need to have about 100 points. How much you can earn depends on the size of your “white” salary. If your salary is equal to the minimum wage, then in 10 years you will earn about 20 points in addition to what you already have. Decide for yourself whether you need it. Two points is about 100 rubles toward your pension under the current accrual system.”
Our next hero did not agree to publish in the newspaper not only his real name, but also his place of residence: “Write that my name is Ivan Mikhailovich and I live in the regional center of the Urals.” But he assured that everything else was true. So, he works as a physical education teacher in one of the local schools and is planning to retire this year — he has reached retirement age, turning 63 years old. But when he was granted a pension, he found out that he had 13 years of experience instead of 14 and 27.3 points (instead of 28.2). The optimal thing for Ivan Mikhailovich would be to work for another year and gain the missing experience. But, unfortunately, his health failed him and does not allow the man to continue working in a position that requires physical strength. Therefore, he decided to buy additional points rather than wait for a social pension in 5 years: “Having made the minimum contribution of 50,798.88 rubles this year, I gained 3 points and 1 year of experience. Now I have 28.3 points and 14 years of experience, thanks to which I can now safely retire next year.”
The question arises: how profitable is such a purchase in principle, since a person who does not receive the most money had to shell out almost 51 thousand rubles at once for the missing points. At Ivan Mikhailovich’s request, social fund specialists made a calculation, from which it followed that if he had waited five years before receiving a social pension, his lost profits would have amounted to about 714 thousand rubles. But since Ivan Mikhailovich missed one year before retirement, he received 571,182.96 rubles from the state for the 50,798.88 rubles contributed. But in reality, taking into account the regular increase in the pensioner’s cost of living and the indexation of pensions, the benefit will be even greater.
Irina Stanislavovna from Nizhny Novgorod worked most of her life as a piano teacher in music schools. She took breaks only to give birth to children, and in the 90s she tried to “fit into the market,” as she herself recalls with irony, and began selling down jackets at the market. Although the business was profitable and helped her, by that time already a divorced woman with two preschool-age girls, survive, she was not in the mood for trading. And as soon as it became possible, Irina Stanislavovna returned to her favorite profession. It is clear that they did not keep any labor books on the market and the money turnover in those “dashing” years was, to put it mildly, not “white.”
The elderly music teacher did not even think that that saving maneuver for her and her family would have an impact on her fate in the 21st century. Exactly in the middle of summer, on July 15, Irina Stanislavovna turns 58 years old. As an extremely careful person, she provided all the necessary documents to the Social Fund a year ago. However, in May she was refused a pension because she did not have enough pension points. Her officially recorded work experience is just over 20 years, that is, according to the main criterion (more than 15 years of experience is required for a pension), she is doing well. However, as it turned out, she scored only 26.7 points (or, as they are officially called, individual pension coefficients, IPC), while those retiring this year need to have more than 28.2 points.
< p>The pensioner shared her problems with her long-grown daughters, who live separately with their families, but support their mother in every possible way. They turned to pension lawyers, and they talked about the possibility of purchasing additional points. The annual minimum contribution to the SFR is calculated simply: the minimum wage (this year it is 19,242 rubles) multiplied by 12 months and by a coefficient (sometimes called the pension tariff) of 0.22.
As a result, in 2024, 1 year of work experience and 1.037 IPC costs 50,758.88 rubles. The pensioner needed to buy 2 points, which will cost 101,517.76 rubles. The children wanted to give Irina Stanislavovna a gift and offered to pay the entire amount at their own expense. The lawyer emphasized that everything must be done no later than December 31 of the year for which the payment is made.
“In other words, now I have to pay for 2024, but the reflection of the paid amounts on an individual personal account can only be seen after March 1 of the year following the reporting year,” Nizhny Novgorod emphasized. “The effect of the purchased points will be felt in a year, only in 2025.” The lawyer explained that since the remaining conditions for granting a pension have been met, Irina Stanislavovna will now be able to apply for a pension in March 2025. During this period, the Nizhny Novgorod resident decided to work as a music teacher, but was still in an emotionally depressed state for a long time because of what had happened.
“If it weren’t for the situation in the country, I would never have gone to work in the market, it wasn’t me who organized these “dashing 90s!” And now it happened like this: I worked all my life, and constantly worked part-time, and eventually returned to school to teach children music. Yes, and the work in the market was not easy — from morning to evening on my feet in the snow, and in the mud, and in the heat, I had to carry boxes of down jackets, all sorts of things… But in the end, the state still believes that I have a full pension didn’t work, it turns out,” the woman complained.
So, for the SFR to accrue a pension to a citizen in 2024, two conditions must be met. Firstly, his minimum length of service must be 15 years, and his individual pension coefficient, that is, the number of pension points, must be at least 28.2. Moreover, next year those retiring will need 30 IPC. Let us remind you that these points are formed taking into account the insurance premiums paid to the Social Fund and the duration of the insurance period. According to Russian legislation, if a citizen does not have enough pension points or length of service, he can enter into an agreement with the SFR and acquire the missing length of service or IPC.
“Citizens may have different situations,” explains Associate Professor of the basic department of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation “Human Resource Management” of the Russian Economic University. Plekhanova Lyudmila Ivanova-Shvets. — Officially employed people can only purchase the missing IPC, and those for whom the employer does not make contributions to the SFR can receive both the length of service and the IPC. If a working citizen lacks 1-2 points, then it may be easier to complete this period and apply for a pension. If we are talking about long periods or missing IPC, then it is worth calculating what is more profitable: to buy additional experience and IPC, or continue to work, or apply for a social pension after 5 years.” In 2024, 1 year of experience and 1,037 IPC costs 50,798.88 rubles. But it’s worth filing all this in advance, since the SFR will count them only for the next year.
The option to purchase pension points arose due to the fact that there are different formats of work activity of citizens in the country. To purchase pension points, a Russian citizen needs to contact the nearest branch of the SFR. “There you will be offered to conclude an agreement on voluntary pension insurance,” says Alexander Safonov, professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. “The maximum number of points per year can be obtained is 8,302, but for this the annual payment amount will already be 406 thousand rubles. The maximum number of years of work experience that can be “purchased” is 7.5 years. This means that to purchase 7.5 years of experience in 2024, you will need to pay 380,917.5 rubles to the Social Fund.”
But it is not at all necessary to pay the entire amount at once for all the missing experience. For those who have firmly decided to carry out such an operation, the expert advises starting payments based on the minimum payment, that is, 8 years before retirement.
Those Russians who have not accumulated the required pension experience due to disability, There is no need to worry — they will receive a disability pension, the professor emphasized.
Whether it is necessary to spend money on purchasing pension points or length of service, each person must decide for himself. It is important to calculate everything: for wealthy citizens in the current conditions, for example, it is more profitable to keep a deposit in a bank. “In the capital, the minimum pension is 24.5 thousand rubles,” Safonov gave an example. — The annual income from it is 294 thousand rubles. So, to receive such an amount at the current bank deposit rate, you need to have 1.96 million rubles in your account. If a retiree has two million in the bank, he doesn’t need to buy points or experience.” If a citizen does not have additional income, then he can be advised to buy additional points, the professor emphasized.