The Russian Pension Fund automatically includes child care periods in mothers’ pension entitlements. According to the current rules, this period is included in mothers’ labor record and increases their pension points. Information about child care periods comes from the birth register of civil registration offices, maternity capital applications and one-off payments to families with children ordered by the president. Thanks to this information exchange, the Pension Fund proactively added new information to accounts of 4.7 million women.
The automatic inclusion of child care information in accounts of women annually increases the share of pensions assigned exclusively on the basis of an application, without personally visiting a client office or providing certifying documents.
Please note that taking care of a child over the first 18 months adds 2.7 pension points to the mother’s pension entitlements. The same period of care for the second child gives the same amount of labor record but a higher pension score – 5.4 points. The period of care for the third or fourth child adds another 1.5 years of labor record and 8.1 pension points. Therefore, a mother of four children can get 24.3 pension points, which are currently sufficient for old-age retirement.
If a woman continues to work after her child is born, the pension entitlements are based on more advantageous labor record and pension coefficients – it could be either the labor record or the time spent by a woman taking care of her child. The child care period can also be credited to the pension entitlements of a father instead of a mother.