The increase in the service life of the military is a minimum wage of 25 years. Media learned about a possible increase in the length of service for military pensions

A draft law providing for an increase from 20 to 25 years of service required for the appointment of a military pension turned out to be agreed upon by the departments that provide for military service. At the same time, it differs significantly from the bill that we wrote about in our June 15, 2017 and which was prepared by our military lawyers. Most importantly, it is assumed that this bill will be submitted to the State Duma this autumn and should come into force on January 1, 2018, and not on January 1, 2019, as previously proposed. However, the bill itself provides for a transitional period until January 1, 2023, during which military personnel with 20 years of service or more will be able to retire from military service with the right to receive a military pension under the same conditions. In addition, it is assumed that in the event of the dismissal of a serviceman on one of the so-called "preferential" grounds (reaching the age limit for military service, health status, organizational and staffing measures, as well as dismissal from military service due to non-fulfillment of the terms of the contract by Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (another federal executive body in which the law provides for military service), if he has served 20 years or more, a pension will be assigned under the same conditions that are currently in force.The new bill provides that the minimum amount of pension with a length of service of 25 years, it will be 65% of the corresponding amounts of monetary allowance taken into account for the appointment of a military pension (salary according to military rank, salary according to position (official salary) and percentage bonus for length of service), and the maximum - 95% of the indicated amounts of monetary allowance. bill, unlike what was promulgated earlier, from there is a rule providing for an increase in the amount of the specified allowance for length of service paid to military personnel and which is taken into account when assigning a military pension, it is not reported, apparently due to a lack of money in the budget, it is no longer planned to do this. Some media reported that such a maneuver would give a respite to the federal budget, as it would allow several billion rubles to be released for some time, which is very important in the difficult economic conditions in which our state finds itself.

At the same time, Kommersant reports that, according to information from his source close to the presidential administration, "a fundamental decision to raise the lower limit of seniority for military personnel has been made." Thus, it can be assumed with a high degree of probability that the minimum length of service required for the appointment of a military pension will still be increased in the near foreseeable future from 20 to 25 years.

You can use the current calculation of the military pension here.

Take advantage of the current calculation of the military pension (mixed), taking into account the civil (labor) length of service.

You can use the current calculation of monetary allowance here.

According to the Law of February 12, 1993 N 4468-1, a seniority pension is awarded to servicemen after 20 years of service in the Armed Forces, as well as in various units of the Russian law enforcement agencies. It is charged from the federal budget and is calculated depending on the amount of monetary allowance for the period of service. Also, the size of the pension depends on the rank and position, it is calculated taking into account various allowances and cash benefits.

Conditions for retirement

According to the current legislation, a seniority pension can be assigned to military personnel who are serving in the military and retire to the reserve after 20 years in a military position. Dismissal is a prerequisite: you cannot serve and receive a military pension at the same time. If a military pensioner decides to return to military service after his dismissal, the payment of the pension is terminated, and he receives monetary allowance from the Ministry of Defense until the moment of re-dismissal and appeal to the pension authority.

Not always a military pension is a seniority pension. It can be assigned for several other reasons:

• Obtaining a disability during the period of service. Disability or serious illness must be documented.
• Calculation of a pension for the widow of a serviceman for the loss of a breadwinner. It is accrued if the widow was unable to earn her own insurance experience while living in closed military camps or in remote regions of the country.

So far, the length of service for military personnel for retirement is 20 years, although there are active talks about increasing this period to 25 years. It is planned to carry out a reform for employees of law enforcement agencies, for whom the retirement age will be increased, and the payment will be indexed by a fairly large amount.

Prospects for pension reform

So far, the latest news about military service at 25 years for retirement remains controversial. The bill is still under consideration and discussion, although it was originally expected to enter into force as early as 2018. The state seeks to find financial reserves and save money, and for this it is planned to increase the retirement age in all spheres of life, including in the army.

If the law goes into effect, the increase in the length of service for pension eligibility from 20 to 25 years for the military will lead to a sharp reduction in the number of military pensioners, as well as an increase in the length of service. At the same time, the age limit for military personnel is 45 years, although this bar may also be increased in the future.

Since the state seeks to reduce costs in all areas, the optimization will also affect departmental medical institutions. It is planned to transfer the medical institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and military hospitals to the Ministry of Health, so that medical assistance to the military and representatives of law enforcement agencies is provided on a common basis. The seniority pension for servicemen can be increased, however, taking into account the decrease in the number of pensioners, this increase will affect few people.

Disputes and protests around the new pension reform, which also affected military personnel, do not subside. According to the bill, the increase in the retirement age is planned to begin on January 1, 2019. Today, a seniority pension can be assigned to military personnel who are serving in the military and retire to the reserve after 20 years in a military position.

The bill to increase military service to 25 years is planned to be put into effect as early as 2019. At the same time, all changes in the pension legislation for the military will be made in two stages so as not to infringe on the rights of those military who have “accumulated” length of service by the end of 2018.

To begin with, it is planned to introduce a provision on an allowance in the amount of 1/4 of the standard pension for those military personnel whose seniority falls at the beginning of the year.

The bill has not yet been enacted, and its stages are under preliminary discussion. The main reason for the possible introduction of the law into force is the lack of budgetary funds for further payments to military pensioners.

Specificity of the new draft law on raising the retirement age

At the moment, for an experience of 20 years, a serviceman is assigned a pension, which is 50% of the monetary allowance. The annual increase at the 20th length of service is 3% of the allowance described above, however, the allowance cannot exceed 85% of the military salary.

In the new draft law, 65% is charged for service of 25 years, and for each year that exceeds the minimum length of service, another 3%, but the maximum amount of security should not exceed 95% of allowance.

A serviceman may retire from the armed forces on one of the provided preferential grounds, which include:

• reaching the maximum age for service in the armed forces;
• a disease confirmed by a military medical commission;
• organizational and staff activities.

In this case, he provides for the appointment of a service pension, the amount of which will be 50% of the above financial resources, subject to the presence of the 20th length of service, and 3% for each year exceeding it, but not more than 95%.

The federal law, which provides for an annual increase in salaries for a position and for a title, has not been implemented for a long time. Since 2013, the increase in the provision of the military has been due to a reduction factor. Its annual growth is prescribed in legislative acts (in 2017 it was equal to 72.23%), thanks to it, pension benefits increased by 30% over 5 years.

Adoption of a law on increasing the length of service for military personnel

It is still unclear when the law will be passed and the new length of service will come into force from 2018 or 2019. It also defines a transitional phase that should last 5 years until 2023.

Citizens who are subject to the action described in the legislation of February 12, 1993, have the right to retire if they have 20 years of service under special conditions that are valid until the entry into force of the new project from January 1, 2023. Now such a rule is spelled out in the bill, but it is not clear how everything will turn out after the official adoption of the regulatory legal act - it is quite possible that the provision will be canceled.

The presidential administration notes that departments need to hold a number of conferences of a financial, economic and social nature in order to make final amendments to articles 13 (“Conditions determining the right to a pension for long service”) and 14 (“Amounts of pension”) of Law No. 4468 -I.

The ongoing opinion polls show that more than 80% of the people surveyed do not support an increase in seniority for military personnel, so it is far from a fact that such a painful event will be completely calm.

The principle of calculating military pensions

The principles of calculating pensions are reflected in the law of February 12, 1993 No. 4468-1 “On Pension Provision”.

Military pensioners may receive a retirement or disability pension. In addition, members of the family of a deceased (deceased) serviceman are entitled to receive a survivor's pension.

In all cases, the basis for determining the amount of the pension is the monetary allowance of the serviceman, i.e. his salary including all allowances.

The retirement pension is established in two cases:

1. With 20 years of service or more.
2. With a total work experience of more than 25 years, of which more than 12.5 years is the length of service in the military or equivalent to it.

The pension with a minimum length of service or seniority in both cases is 50% of the monetary allowance. If the experience exceeds the minimum, then in the first case 3% is added for each additional year over 20 years (but not more than 85% of the amount of allowance). In the second case, with a “mixed” length of service, 1% is added for each year after 25 years (Article 14 of Law No. 4468-1).

Cancellation of the reduction factor for military pensioners

Demands to cancel the reduction factor appeared almost immediately from the moment of its introduction and continue to the present.

The legality of the introduction of this norm was repeatedly checked by the Constitutional Court, which did not find in it a violation of constitutional rights (this is indicated, for example, by the rulings of July 17, 2012 No. 1433-O and of September 24, 2012 No. 1800-O). The Court refers, in particular, to the fact that due to the increase in the base (ie official salaries), the absolute amount of pensions has not decreased. In addition, the law provides for a mechanism for a phased increase in the coefficient, and hence pension payments.

The question of abolishing the reduction factor was also raised in the State Duma. The corresponding bill proposed by the Communist Party faction was considered in February 2017 and rejected.

In addition, as mentioned above, the current growth of the coefficient has also been suspended for 2018.

The probability of canceling the reduction coefficient on pensions for military pensioners in 2018 is very small. Most likely, an increase in military pensions in the near future will occur only as a result of an increase in monetary allowance, which is included in the budget for 2018-2020.

The departments that provide for military service have developed a bill to increase the lower limit of the length of service that gives the right to receive a military pension from 20 to 25 years. Relevant work has been carried out since March by decision of President Vladimir Putin. The authors of the project believe that this decision will relieve the budget of several hundred billion rubles annually. A number of experts say that raising the minimum length of service will not make military service more attractive. But a reduction in federal spending on military pensions will give the White House greater freedom in deciding on early pensions and raising the retirement age, Kommersant reports http://kommersant.ru/doc/3325573.

On the development of the draft law “On Amendments to the Law of the Russian Federation of February 12, 1993 No. 4468-1 “On pensions for persons who have served in the military, served in the internal affairs bodies, the state fire service, bodies for controlling the circulation of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, institutions and bodies of the criminal correctional system, the Federal Service of the National Guard Troops, and their families,” said a source close to the leadership of one of the law enforcement agencies. Then this was confirmed by the interlocutor in the Ministry of Defense.

So, according to him, on May 22, the head of the main personnel department of the Ministry of Defense, General Viktor Goremykin, reported on the preparation of documents to the Deputy Minister of Defense, General Dmitry Bulgakov (letter No. 173/2/15025). This work was carried out as part of the implementation of Vladimir Putin's decision No. Pr-497 of March 17, a senior official of the presidential administration confirms, representatives of all departments related to military service were involved in it. “The topic is very delicate, there are still a number of consultations at the level of the financial, economic and social blocs of the government, as well as all interested parties,” he says. The departments interviewed either declined to comment or did not respond to requests. It was not possible to contact the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov. Prime Minister's press secretary Natalya Timakova refrained from commenting.

The idea of ​​raising the lower limit of seniority has been discussed for a long time, but the matter has never reached a final decision. Back in 2013, the military proposed a similar maneuver, which was proposed to be divided into two stages. Until January 1, 2019, all military personnel who served for more than 20 years but did not retire were planned to receive an increase of 25% of the amount of the pension that they could receive. And from 2019, to finally fix the lower limit of seniority at 25 years. However, calculations have shown that the federal budget will not cope with all the additional payments required for the transition period. In 2015, the discussion was resumed by Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. “The military, I believe, can also extend the length of service, allowing them to retire,” he said. “Look, we have 1 million healthy young men working as security guards, not to mention a significant number of security forces. Each barrier has a guard and guards it. Often the military, having served 20 years, become pensioners at the age of 40.

In the financial and economic bloc, the government considered it acceptable to increase the term of service, which gives the right to a military pension, to 30 years, but this option was rejected. Recall that at the same time, the unstable economic situation called into question the indexation of allowances for military personnel, as a result of which the Ministry of Finance wanted to abandon the revision in the direction of increasing the amount of payments to military pensioners.

Vladimir Putin intervened in the situation, after which Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Anton Siluanov settled all issues by finding additional funds.

According to Kommersant's information, the current version of the bill provides for an increase in the lower limit of seniority from 20 to 25 years. This will require amendments to two articles: 13th (conditions determining the right to a pension for years of service) and 14th (pension amounts). The interlocutors do not name the proposed terms for the adoption of the amendments, but note that it is logical to do this after the 2018 presidential election.

The authors of the project do not disclose the scheme for increasing the lower limit of seniority: it is not yet clear whether a transition period will be introduced and, if so, how much it will cost the budget. It is only known that the innovation will not affect those whose contract ends at 20 years of service. Everyone else will have to serve five years more to receive a military pension. Vasily Zatsepin, head of the laboratory of military economics at the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, notes that the implementation of the project will not increase the attractiveness of military service and, most likely, the number of those wishing to serve will decrease.

Doctor of Economic Sciences Sergey Smirnov notes that the initiative is in line with the policy of optimizing budget spending. “Increasing the lower limit of length of service, which gives the right to receive a military pension, is one of the elements of the new system,” the expert says, recalling that government officials have recently been affected by such changes. This version is confirmed by a high-ranking official of the government apparatus: “We started with civil servants, and the military became a natural continuation of our consistent work.” Sources in the financial and economic block of the government claim that the risks of a negative reaction from military personnel exist and they are very high, but at the final stage, such a change in the law will allow saving several hundred billion rubles a year, greatly unloading the budget. “This knot needs to be untied somehow,” says one of the interlocutors.

Directly adopted, as it turns out, back in March 2017 and previously unpublished, the decision of Vladimir Putin, which can be considered “increasing the retirement age for military pensioners,” is not related to the discussion about the general increase in the retirement age. There are two fundamental positions in the authorities in this matter. The first (represented, in particular, in the developments of the Center for Strategic Research under the leadership of Alexei Kudrin) is that it is necessary to raise the retirement age. The second (associated with the position of the Ministry of Labor and the White House social bloc in general) is the reform of the system of early pensions, to which up to a third of the population of the Russian Federation are entitled, will either cancel the general increase in the retirement age, or delay the decision, or make the schedule for raising the retirement age smoother. .

The price of the issue in the case of early pensions is about 350-400 billion rubles. per year and is comparable in order of magnitude to the upcoming savings on payments to military pensioners - these payments are made from the federal budget, as is the transfer to the Pension Fund to cover the deficit. The Ministry of Finance insisted on the decision to reduce the cost of military pensions, whose position on the “civilian” retirement age is quite tough: the head of the department, Anton Siluanov, has repeatedly stated the urgent need to raise the age. But cutting federal spending on military pensions, which have nothing to do with the Pension Fund, at the same time gives the White House more freedom both in deciding on early pensions and in raising the retirement age.

The majority of citizens would like to retire at the age of 56.8, according to the VTsIOM survey (the last one was conducted in January 2015). It should be noted that this is close to the real average term for retirement in the Russian Federation - early or within the period established by law. The average age at which workers would like to go on vacation varies, it is the lowest among those aged 18–24 (55.8 years) and the highest among those aged 35–44 (58.8 years). Support for the retirement age in connection with the "increase in life expectancy" say 7% of respondents, 8% "rather support" the initiative. 62% do not support raising the retirement age, and 16% “rather do not support it,” follows from the same VTsIOM survey. The level of support is highest among respondents aged 18–24 and 25–34.

Vladimir Petukhov, head of the Center for Comprehensive Social Research at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes that "officials will be happy to speak out in favor of raising the retirement age, in particular, leading cadres who sit in a warm office." “I think it extends to the military partly,” he says. Mr. Petukhov suggests that the military without a “civilian” profession, which will provide work in case of early retirement, can also support the initiative.

In the summer of 2017, almost to the same day as today, the Russian media reported on the upcoming reform of military pensions. The main point of the reform is to increase the length of service for servicemen by five years at once. A year has passed, and this news has not yet received concrete development, but this does not mean that the state has forgotten about the idea itself. An increase in the length of service for military personnel up to 25 years is the latest news about a possible reform of military pensions in Russia, what is the minimum length of service that exists under the law at the moment.

News about the preparation of an increase in length of service up to 25 years for military personnel

The existence of a bill to increase the minimum length of service for the military from 20 to 25 years was reported a year ago by the publication Kommersant. Referring to its sources in the Ministry of Defense and other security agencies, the newspaper wrote that in March 2017, the Russian President instructed to prepare a draft law on increasing the length of service for security officials. At the end of May last year, the project was ready.

The idea of ​​raising the minimum length of service required to receive a military pension did not arise out of nowhere. By the time the president instructed to work on this issue, the retirement age for Russian civil servants had already been increased. For the same military pensioners who are already retired, they froze the reduction coefficient that ties pensions to salaries in the army and which was supposed to increase annually until the pension of a retired military would coincide with the salary of an employee in the same rank and at the same positions in active troops.

Saving the budget is one of the main tasks that the state had to solve after the start of the economic crisis in 2013-2014.

The mechanism for increasing the length of service for military personnel up to 25 years

The exact mechanism has not been revealed. Only one thing was known - for those military men whose current contracts are ending at the moment when their length of service reaches 20 years, the right to retire will come according to the old rules. Raising the minimum length of service will not affect them.

As for everyone else, it is not known for certain whether the bill provides for a transitional period or, if the bill is introduced and passed, it will enter into force immediately, and the military will simply be presented with a fait accompli.

Back in 2013, a similar draft law on increasing seniority appeared in the Ministry of Defense. In that bill, the mechanism was as follows - it was proposed to introduce a transitional period until 2019, during which military personnel could choose whether to retire after 20 years of service or continue their service, receiving an additional 25 percent of their possible pension in addition to their salary. From 2019, according to this project, the length of service was to be increased to 25 years, and the transition period was to be completed.

The project for reforming military pensions from 2013, after the calculations were made, was recognized as not entirely successful - there were simply no funds for its implementation even at that time.

Two years later, in 2015, the Ministry of Finance came up with a rather radical proposal. The Ministry of Finance proposed to increase the minimum length of service for the military immediately to 30 years. The proposal, of course, did not find understanding and was not developed.

Will there be an increase in length of service to 25 years for the military in 2018

The history of the emergence of such projects suggests that they arise every two years and are safely forgotten. The ideas that were discussed in 2013 and 2015 were found to be inappropriate. The news about another bill that appeared in 2017 did not receive development either.

However, the 2017 project differs from the previous two in an essential detail - it was initiated by direct order of the President.

At the same time, in the summer of last year, Kommersant's sources made no secret of the fact that although the bill had been prepared in general terms, its adoption would certainly be delayed. In March 2018, presidential elections were held, and all decisions that were unpopular with the people were pushed into the background, and, if possible, they were simply not talked about.

Elections have passed, and the first unpopular measure, which is no longer embarrassed to talk about, is already being prepared for adoption. We are talking about raising the retirement age for all Russians. The decision itself has not yet been made, but the government does not hide the fact that it will appear soon.

The same may well be expected of military personnel. Having carried out a reform with an increase in the retirement age for “civilian” pensioners, the state may well return to the topic of increasing the length of service to 25 for the military and other security officials. Therefore, acting officers and generals of the Russian army need to carefully monitor breaking news on this topic. Before the changes are adopted, their mechanism will be discussed, and it will become clear what exactly the government is preparing for the military.