The Social Fund will start providing regional pension supplements across the country next year. All regions decided to hand the payments over to the Fund. Moscow will be the only region to retain the power to allot supplements.
"We are consistently introducing the social treasury principles, the most important of which is being proactive," says Sergey Chirkov, Chairman of the Social Fund. "Millions of retirees will start getting their regional pension supplements without applications, together with their pensions. That will relieve people of the need to track income from different sources or submit papers.
Today, the Fund pays regional pension supplements to retirees in 59 Russian regions. In 30 regions, those supplements come from the regional social welfare authorities. After the payments are handed over to the Social Fund, both supplements will be synchronized at a single contact point and provided under a single standard.
According to the rules in force, social supplements are paid to retirees whose income is below the subsistence rate. If the subsistence rate in a region is below the federal level, the supplement is paid by the Social Fund of the Russian Federation; if above that level – by the social welfare authorities.
In Moscow, for instance, the subsistence rate for that year is RUB 17,897, which is above the national level for pensioners: RUB 15,250. That is why supplements in Moscow are paid regionally. The subsistence rate in Oryol Region, on the other hand, is RUB 14,183, below the national level, so the social supplement there is provided by the Social Fund