An economist named the benefits of indexing his pensions
According to 2022 data, older Russians continue to work on average for 7.5 years after retirement. And only then they leave for a well-deserved rest, since there is no longer any strength left to pull the strap. In 2020, that figure was 7.02 years. Such information is provided by Rosstat in its report.
According to the statistics department, 17.5% of Russian pensioners continue to work. About a third of them after retirement work from one year to 4 years, 6% — from 5 to 9 years, 2.8% keep their job for 10-14 years. And only 1.7%, the most persistent, continue to work for 15 years or more.
Is it a lot or a little: almost a fifth of the veterans, who, despite all the years, continue to work?
According to the Social Fund, there are 7.9 million working pensioners in Russia, and the total number of citizens of retirement age is 41.8 million people. It is noted that the number of working pensioners, whose pensions have not been indexed since 2016, has almost halved over this period. Back in 2016, there were 15 million working pensioners. Over the past year alone, their army has decreased by 600 thousand.
There is some arithmetic dependence here. It is interesting for a pensioner to continue working if he simultaneously receives a salary and an indexed pension. But since it has been frozen since 2016, then it probably makes sense to write a letter of resignation and do household chores. Especially when the salary at the place of work is small and not very different from the amount of pension compensation.
Monitoring of the duration of work after retirement in Russia has been carried out since 2011. That year it averaged 6 years, but every year it slowly but surely increases. In 2020, it was 7.02 years, last year — 7.47 years.
We asked the Associate Professor of the Russian University of Economics to comment on the statistics on working pensioners. Plekhanov Ludmila Ivanova-Shvets.
— If young people are able to replace veterans in the labor market, then it would be more correct to provide jobs for them. And in many regions there is such a practice: young people, as the song says, are dear to us everywhere. Pensioners are vacating vacancies for younger applicants.
However, there is a large shortage of qualified personnel in Russia. For many professions, employers raise the age limit to 50, 60 and 60 + years — and cannot find specialists. Although today we need to use the experience and competencies of veterans. Given the current situation, in my opinion, the potential of pensioners in the country is not used enough. After the cancellation of indexing, their number was halved …
— In the current situation — yes. They do not receive indexation, but at the same time they make all social payments to various funds, to which they paid before going on a well-deserved rest. And here, it seems to me, there is a clear contradiction. If there is no indexation, then at least the length of service after retirement is taken into account, some kind of allowances would be introduced, as was the case in Soviet and post-Soviet times. Such recalculations were canceled in the 90s of the last century.
— Many pensioners do not leave the labor market, they continue to work, but this time unofficially. If they worked officially and paid taxes, then perhaps these revenues would cover the savings from non-indexation of pensions. This has been talked about a lot in recent years by various political forces and individual deputies of the parliament, but the government every time refuses to index working pensioners. Personally, it seems to me that it is better to index pensions and have working pensioners: help for the state's economy would be more tangible.
— Basically, if only they are engaged in scientific work. But in many countries the retirement age is much higher than ours. For example, in Ireland — 72 years for men. At this age, as a rule, they are already sitting at home.
— The situation here is serious. 30% of the total unemployment in the country falls on young people from 16 (beginning of working age) to 24 years. This is a very high percentage.
We have lost career guidance for young people. After graduation, not everyone is ready to go to college. What are these graduates to do? They do not want to get working professions, it is not prestigious. Yes, they do not know what the profession of a locksmith or, say, a turner is.
Earlier, there were training and production plants in schools, where children were instilled with skills, they mastered the basics of a working specialty. Now there is no such thing. My very first diploma after graduating from school was the qualification of a car mechanic of the 4th category. And I'm proud of him, I can still fix the Zhiguli. But in schools today there is no career guidance for children. If it had not been liquidated at one time, there would have been fewer unemployed among the younger generation.