Pension in Belarus: size, minimum rates

Many people whose age is close to retirement are interested in the question of what pension has been established in Belarus today, how it is calculated and what is new in this area. Let's try to understand the problem and give an exhaustive answer to these questions.

Pension in Belarus

All issues related to pensions in Belarus are regulated by law No. 1596 – XII, adopted back in 1992, as well as by some additional laws and by-laws.

According to the legislation, two types of pension accruals are established:

• social;
• labor.

To obtain each of them put forward a number of necessary conditions. In addition, at least once a year (or more often), according to the Decree of the President, pension benefits are recalculated. A prerequisite for receiving payments is the payment of insurance premiums, which are withheld from each working citizen for a certain period and are transferred to the state social security fund.

A labor pension payment is accrued to all citizens of the country upon reaching a certain age. It is formed on the basis of the applicant's working experience and the number of insurance contributions made by him during the period of labor activity. Those citizens who, for one reason or another, were unable to gain experience and are unable to work, are entitled to a social pension.

An increase in a pension in Belarus is also possible through insurance of additional pension payments, which is carried out on a voluntary basis. Such services are provided by the country's insurance companies. Not only the citizen, but also the organization in which he works can take care of the formation of an additional part of the pension.

Types of Pensions

As in other countries, the amount of pension in Belarus directly depends on what kind of payment you are applying for, how old you are and how your relationship with the social insurance fund has developed.

There are such pension payment options:

According to the age.

As a general rule, men and women whose age exceeds 60 and 55 years, respectively, who have worked for the good of the state for at least 25 (20) years, can apply for such a pension. In some cases, exceptions are possible. Before the deadline, those whose working conditions were found to be harmful or difficult go on a well-deserved rest. The relief also applies to workers in transport, agricultural, textile and some other areas of activity.

According to the length of service.

This list includes some employees in the medical field, education, sports or creative activities. Also, length of service can be used in calculating pensions for citizens employed in aviation or flight test units.

By disability.

To assign this type of pension at the time of disability it is also necessary to have a minimum length of service:

• 1 year - for persons under 23 years old;
• 2 years - for those over 23 but less than 26 years old;
• 3 years - from 26 to 31 years and so on.

For people with disabilities since childhood, an old-age pension is also offered. Seniority for them is established on a par with healthy citizens (25 and 20 years), but the age at which you can claim payment is reduced by 5 years - 55 and 50 years for men and women, respectively.

For special merits.

The procedure for calculating such payments, as well as all issues related to receiving such a pension, are regulated by the Council of Ministers.

By the loss of the breadwinner.

This type of payment is considered to be for disabled citizens who are dependent if they are recognized as having lost the breadwinner or the last one went missing.

Retirement age

This is a very important and controversial issue for those who are entitled to a pension in Belarus. The age for going on a well-deserved rest today is 55 years for women and 60 for the stronger sex. But starting next year, it will begin to rise steadily. Every year, this figure will increase by 6 months and by 2022 will reach 58 years for women and 63 years for the male population.

Of course, not many people like this reform, but it is due to good reasons. The fact is that today a growing number of pensioners has led to a high burden on the country's budget. A fairly large part of the able-bodied population increasingly goes abroad to earn money and, accordingly, does not pay taxes domestically. All these factors lead to a decrease in per capita GDP and a recession in the country's economy.

Seniority for retirement

In 2016, the age pension in Belarus will be accrued to those who, upon reaching the appropriate age, have a working experience of at least 15 years and 6 months. But from 2017, this figure will also grow steadily for 6 months annually. By 2025, the minimum length of service for receiving pension payments in Belarus will reach 20 years. If all of the above is a little systematized, then it will look like this:

If it was not possible to earn the required length of service, then payments will be made in the presence of at least 10 years of labor activity. Such a pension will be accrued taking into account the actually worked time. Moreover, it cannot be lower than half the minimum retirement pension.

Calculation of the pension and its size

The minimum pension in Belarus is really small. Its size is a quarter from cost of living taken over the previous two quarters.

The minimum pension payment to people with disabilities of the first and second groups is 100% of the lowest pension payment by age, and for people with disabilities of the third group this indicator is reduced by 50%. Heroine mothers also receive 100% of the minimum age. The same applies to seniority pensioners.

An old-age pension is defined as 55% of the average monthly salary, adjusted for Article 56. The calculation is carried out in accordance with established standards, as a percentage of the actual wage that was accrued before applying for a pension benefit.

Those 10% that do not exceed 130% of the average state wage are fully taken into account, and each subsequent 10% is multiplied by a coefficient from 0.9 to 0.1, respectively (taken from 90 to 10%). Salaries of 130–400% are taken into account in the amount of 10%. The amount that will be obtained as a result of the calculations is considered to be earnings for calculating the pension payment.

Thus, factors affect the amount of pension benefits:

• experience;
• amount of earnings;
• years of work beyond experience;
• field of work.

Change (recalculation) of calculated indicators can be made in such cases:

• change in the cost of living;
• increase in average salary by 15 percent or more;
• accumulation of necessary length of service for citizens who did not have it;
• change in the type of retirement benefit.

A little bit about points

As you already understood, the pension in Belarus is calculated according to a rather complicated scheme, one of the components of which is a personal pension coefficient. For each fully worked year, a certain number of points is awarded. By the time they retire, they need to get at least three dozen. However, this scheme can only be fully implemented by 2025.

Different nuances

Who will not be affected by the increase in length of service? As always, this increase does not apply to those who apply for a disability pension, mothers with many children, people with disabilities from childhood and those who provide care for them. For all these categories, it will still be sufficient to work at least 5 years.

How is seniority considered? Only time is taken into account when deductions to the social insurance fund were actually made from the employee’s salary. For example, an army, study or decree will not be taken into account.

If there is no experience, for such citizens a pension in Belarus can only be social. It is equal to half the cost of living. At the same time, men can receive even such a small allowance only from the age of 65, and women after reaching the age of 60.

Foreigners will also pay. From this year, compulsory social insurance applies to foreigners and stateless persons residing and working in the territory of the Republic of Belarus.

Differences between the pension systems of Russia and Belarus

In fact, in pension systems the two countries do not have a lot of differences. In both Russia and Belarus, a pension is accrued upon reaching a certain age if a person has the right amount of contributions to the social insurance fund. Also, in both countries, a small allowance is entitled to persons with disabilities, disabled people and citizens who do not have sufficient work experience.

By and large, the main differences are that the pension in Belarus depends mainly on the length of service and the size of insurance premiums. In Russia, the determining indicator is pension capital. In addition, it can be noted that in Belarus the procedure for calculating pension payments for citizens working in difficult conditions is carried out in a slightly different way.