Starting next year, the Pension Fund will be offering Russian citizens certain measures of support, which are currently provided by social protection services and Rostrud.
Measures to be provided by the fund address various categories of citizens. These include families with children or families where children are yet to be born. Parents are entitled to monthly and one-off benefits, including pregnancy, birth and child care benefits.
Pensions and compensations of families of deceased military servicemen and law enforcement officers constitute a large group of benefits. Such families are entitled to compensation for utility bills, private house renovations or summer vacations of their children.
A separate package provides social support to persons exposed to radiation in the cleanup of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the work at the Mayak plant, nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk range, and similar situations.
Importantly, Russians do not need to file applications to have the payments reassigned or continued. The PFR will take up the transfer of funds automatically. Applications for new benefits should be filed with the Pension Fund starting next year.
Assignment terms are unchanged, and it is still necessary to file an application. Yet, as the Pension Fund starts paying benefits, their assignment procedure will be gradually simplified. That will happen, for instance, as the fund will establish the entitlements on the social treasury principles, based primarily on its own database and information to be requested by the PFR from other agencies. As time passes, that will make the collection of documents unnecessary and will facilitate the reception of funds.
For example, starting next year, families of deceased military servicemen will no longer have to present bills once in every six months to confirm their public utility payments and receive compensation. The Pension Fund will require the respective information from the public utility and housing database.
In the end, an application filed with the Pension Fund’s client service will be sufficient for the assignment of most social benefits. Later on, ways of applying for benefits will be expanded, and it will be possible to file an application online via the public services portal. The first services of the kind will emerge as early as in 2022.
Besides PFR offices, it will be possible to apply for benefits via multifunctional centers of public services. As of now, Pension Fund offices have expanded respective agreements with multifunctional centers in over half of regions in order to receive applications for the provision of reassigned measures of support. In the future, it will be possible to apply for benefits at multifunctional centers in all regions.
Besides a shorter list of documents certifying the entitlement to payments, the assignment period will be reduced as the Pension Fund takes up the provision of social support measures. Currently, the majority of benefits are assigned within a month. The procedure will become twice faster next year. PFR offices will be processing applications within five to ten working days, and funds will be transferred within the same period once they are assigned.
Russians will receive the first PFR payments of the kind on January 17. The payment of January benefits, which are usually received in February, will thus be expedited.
Only new benefits will be paid in February to persons who apply for benefits in January or February. Starting from March, funds will be transferred by the standard schedule, according to which benefits due in the previous month are paid in the current month.
Please note that the measures of support to be provided by the Pension Fund starting next year will apply to over 2 million people. The overall payments will near 120 billion rubles in 2022.
Information about the assignment of benefits, which are transferred from social protection services to the Pension Fund, can be received from information desks of PFR regional branches or the unified call center by dialing 8-800-6-000-000.