Freeze of the funded part of the pension - what does it mean? The essence of the freezing of pension savings and what will happen in the future What does the freezing of the funded part of the pension mean

The Russians will return the funded pension in 2019, but, according to breaking news, it will be formed according to the new rules provided for by separate provisions of the approved pension reform. Due to this, the government plans to halve the level of poverty in the country, ensure a constant increase in the volume of pension payments and improve the quality of life of citizens who have ceased their labor activity. To this end, last fall, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation prepared a draft law defining the concept for the formation of individual pension capital, the implementation of which will begin in 2019.

Freezing the storage part

As it became known, the government decided to freeze funded part pensions in 2019. Such an unpopular measure is designed to reduce the deficit of the Pension Fund and ensure the uninterrupted payment of pensions to citizens who have completed their careers. The government has repeatedly used the freeze to stabilize the economic situation in the country, and last time such manipulation affected 30 million Russians.

In accordance with the norms of the current legislation, each employer must pay a pension tax for his employee in the amount of 22% of his salary. After the reform and the introduction of the funded system, the conditions have changed, and now every citizen can divide his payments into a contribution to the account of the recipient of the NPF (6%) and insurance pension(sixteen%). Due to this, after entering a well-deserved rest, you can not only receive payments from the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, but also dispose of funded part.

Freezing actually blocks the flow of money from the funded part. They come at the disposal of the government, which decides where and how much it is better to spend them. Such manipulation will not affect only citizens who already receive pension payments and whose taxes go in full to the NPF.

Relevance of innovation

At the moment, the funded part is formed at the expense of insurance premiums, which are paid by each officially registered employee. But it has already become obvious that such a system of forming the amount of cash payments is extremely inefficient, since after many years of work, citizens still cannot receive a decent amount of pension payments. In addition, it declares a unified approach to all employees, regardless of their standard of living and material wealth thus depriving them of the right to decide how much to put aside for their retirement. So, for example, if a citizen does not have large monthly expenses, and he wants to save money “for old age”, he has no conditions for increasing accruals, and he is forced to look for an alternative option for saving money (for example, a bank deposit).

On the other hand, the difficult economic situation in the country and the increase in expenditures from the state budget for social payments- this is a reason to reconsider the procedure for calculating pensions, especially since the scheme used cannot provide a high standard of living for citizens who have retired. In the context of a budget deficit and the inability to borrow money from foreign counterparties, a different approach to the formation of pensions is needed, and this primarily concerns its funded part.

Alternative savings

The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation initiates changes to the procedure for calculating the funded part of the pension in 2019. It is assumed that it will be replaced by an individual pension capital(IPK), which will be formed by the deduction by employees of a certain share of their salary in the NPF, which will be carried out only on a voluntary basis. For the first time, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank made a proposal to replace the funded part with the IPC back in 2016, but only in the current realities can deputies support this idea, as it will help reduce the expenditure side of the budget.

By new scheme, as before, the employer and the state will take part in the formation of the pension. At the same time, an agreement will be attached to the employment contract of each employee to transfer funds to the IPC account (or this will be included as a separate paragraph in the text of such a document). By default, the contribution will be 0%, but the citizen will have 2 years to decide how much money he will save "for old age" ( maximum size such contribution is not limited by applicable law).

In order to encourage employees and encourage them to take an active part in the formation of the IPC, the state will provide them with a benefit in the form of a personal income tax deduction (within 1-6% of the amount wages). It is assumed that the employer will receive a similar benefit, but the Ministry of Finance will make a final decision on its amount only next year.

Deadlines and possible problems

The new accumulative system of individual pension capital should start operating in 2019. But the closer the end of the current year, the more obvious that legislators will not have time to make appropriate amendments to the current law in order to fully launch the planned reform.

In particular, it is quite clear that for the successful implementation of the innovation, the clause on deductions to the IPC account should be included “by default” in labor contract or designated by separate agreement. But, from the point of view of law, it will be quite difficult to introduce such non-acceptance actions, since they can only be justified at the level of legislation, and not as law enforcement practice.

No less relevant is the question of who will act as the NPF. According to recent studies, more than 34 million people are served in private funds, and over the past two years, when the funded part of the pension was frozen, more than 10 million people left the PFR. But so far this is not enough to talk about the success of the reform and the great confidence of Russians in private funds.

It is "frozen" by the current legislation until 2019. This means that the money that should have gone to the funded part of the pension (for those who chose it) will continue to go to the insurance part and be taken into account in it, being converted into points. This is written in the explanatory note to the document. The money itself will go to current payments to today's pensioners.

However, this turn did not become a sensation. According to experts, it was obvious that the "freeze" would be extended. On the one hand, the transfer of the funded part of pensions to the insurance allows reducing transfers from the federal budget to pay pensions to current pensioners, says Sergey Smirnov, Doctor of Economics. On the other hand, the expert is sure, the funded pension in the form in which it was introduced in Russia several years ago will not return.

"This money, in fact, is "dead" for the state pension system. Now we need a new format," he told RG.

The government understands this too. In this regard, a new system is being developed - individual pension capital (IPC). And after it is launched, the question of "freezing" or "defrosting" the former pension savings will fall off by itself. IPC will replace the "old" funded pension, experts say.

As Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia Alexei Moiseev recently told reporters, individual pension capital may appear as early as 2019. And at the end of this year, the Ministry of Finance plans to submit a bill to the government that will establish the basic principles of the IPC.

Funded pension "in the old" form will not return, it will be replaced by individual pension capital

Now the employer pays 22 percent of his salary to the pension system for the employee. 16 percent of them are money automatically going to insurance part pensions, but as for six percent, a person could send them to a non-state pension fund. Individual pension capital assumes that the funds that the employer pays for the employee will continue to be sent to the Pension Fund of Russia. But if an employee would like his pension to be more than the state can provide him, he will be able to join the system and deduct up to six percent of his salary to the non-state pension fund of his choice. More precisely, the deductions will be made by the employer, but not at the expense of their own funds, but from the employee's salary. The money that a person will voluntarily transfer to the pension system will not be subject to income tax. First, pension contributions will be made from the salary, and then personal income tax will be deducted from the remaining amount. In order to be included in the system, a person will need to write an application. By the way, this question caused a lot of controversy. In the Ministry of Finance, where the idea of the IPC is being nurtured, they were convinced that the "subscription" to voluntary pension contributions should be automatic, by default, and if a person does not want to participate in this, then he must write an application to refuse. But the Ministry of Labor was against such "imposition".

Starting from 2002, as a result of the pension reform, a funded program appeared in Russia. For those citizens who were born after 1967, the pension was divided into two parts - funded and insurance. The latter was supposed to provide current payments on pension obligations, and the funded one was intended to form a pension for a working citizen.

In view of the deterioration of the economic situation in the country, in 2014 a moratorium was established on the accumulation of pensions. The ban could continue until 2020. At present, the future of the accumulative pension system is being decided by the government of our country. No specific decisions have been made yet, however, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance are making proposals for pension reform and the introduction of a conditionally voluntary basis for the formation of future payments. Thus, the citizen himself will decide how much he is ready to invest in his future pension.

So what does the freezing of pension savings mean in simple terms? We will talk about this further.

Freeze of the funded part of the pension

As mentioned above, the economy is in a difficult situation, there is a budget deficit. The government decided to introduce a temporary restriction on the creation of a funded pension for citizens. According to the Government of the Russian Federation, this measure will normalize the position of the Pension Fund. From this moment, part of the contributions that were previously accrued to the accounts of non-state pension funds and management companies are transferred to the account of the insurance pension, that is, to the Pension Fund.

Should I be afraid?

Government officials assure us that funds are not withdrawn from circulation, as many incompetent persons believe. It is also insistently asserted that the total abolition of the funded share of the pension will not happen, and the funds subjected to the freezing of pension savings, after the lifting of the moratorium, will be transferred to the accounts of non-state funds. The only question is when this will happen. However, the government guarantees this fact. So, when calculating a pension, the money accumulated during the freezing of pension savings will be indexed and taken into account.

Objectives of the moratorium

The pension reform carried out in 2002 led to a number of problems. The main one is that 6% of contributions for pension insurance began to be transferred by the employer to the personal accounts of non-state pension funds and management companies, which significantly reduced the amount of funds received by the Pension Fund. This led to the fact that the budget of the state pension fund suffered greatly.

The subsequent deep economic crisis led to an even greater drawdown in the budget of the PFR, in connection with which the already deficit organization became completely unprofitable. As a result of the current critical situation of the Pension Fund, the government confirmed the decision to redirect funds intended for non-state funds to the FIU. Thus, it was possible to support the creation of a future insurance pension.

2014 changes

The government explains the introduction of restrictions on the creation of the funded part of the pension by the need for a thorough check of the work of all non-state pension funds and management companies. That is how the need to freeze pension savings and make appropriate changes to the legislative pension base was justified by official representatives of the authorities.

Many experts, however, agreed that the only reasonable explanation for the introduction of such restrictions on the accumulation of pensions and their transfer to the Pension Fund is a reduction in the provision of the Pension Fund by the state. In other words, the government actually refused to further finance the Pension Fund.

The result of a joint decision of the Parliament and the Government of the Russian Federation in December 2013 was the signing of Law No. 351, which prescribes the transfer of contributions to the personal accounts of citizens in the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation in order to form an insurance pension starting from 2014.

Extension of restrictions

What do the laws say about freezing pension savings?

At the end of 2014, the moratorium on making contributions to the funded part of the pension was extended for the entire period of 2015. This was spelled out in Federal Law No. 410. It should be noted that since the same 2015, an updated pension accumulation system in the Russian Federation began to work, according to which the funded part became an independent type of pension, completely autonomous from the insurance one.

In 2015, the restriction was extended for another year, continuing the freeze on pension savings in 2016. This time the moratorium was regulated by Federal Law No. 373. However, the motivation of the government in relation to such restrictions has changed. Now such measures were aimed at saving budgetary funds. The measures that were taken along with the moratorium were the following points:

2. Pensions began to be indexed not for the inflation rate equal to 12.9% in 2015, but only for 4%.

The stabilization of the situation in the country's economy and the return to budget planning for three years at once allowed the government in 2016 to extend the moratorium immediately until 2019 after the adoption federal law No. 447. In other words, there has been a freeze on pension savings until 2020, and until 2021, all our funds transferred to citizens' accounts will be directed to the insurance part of the pension. In this regard, many people have a natural question: are such measures a prerequisite for the end and subsequent abolition of the accumulative system of formation future pension?

Prospects for the funded system

The government has introduced a number of bills that relate to the subsequent reform of the pension savings system, including contributions to non-state funds. The Ministry of Finance proposes to form future pensions on a conditionally voluntary basis. Thus, the following is assumed:

1. Having expressed a desire to form a funded part of the pension, a citizen will independently direct part of the income received to non-state funds, bypassing the FIU.

2. Those deductions that will be made by the employer will be transferred only to the budget of the Pension Fund in order to form the insurance part of future payments. Actually, this is what is happening now, during the moratorium.

Thus, if we take into account the trends that are observed in the socio-economic sphere of Russia in recent times, as well as taking into account the imposed sanctions, stagnation in the production sector and negative forecasts for the future, it becomes clear that savings accounts in non-state funds and management companies will not be unfrozen. At the very least, this moratorium will last until the government finds a way to secure the Pension Fund or reduce budget spending.

The amount of future payments

Naturally, future pensioners are very concerned about the question of whether the moratorium will affect the funded part of the pension in future payments. The obvious fact is that such restrictions will affect future pensions. This is due to several factors:

1. Before the introduction of restrictions, contributions to the funded part of the pension were placed by NPFs and management companies in the financial markets, as well as invested in profitable enterprises and projects. This, of course, increased savings, and, accordingly, the size of the future pension.

2. The profitability of invested funds is influenced by many factors, including the professionalism of NPF employees. However, many funds show stable growth in all indicators, unlike the Pension Fund.

The fate of the NPF

In connection with the freezing of pension savings, NPFs simply cannot stay afloat due to the lack of funds coming into their budget. And their bankruptcy, of course, will affect the depositors, as well as the amount of future pension payments.

findings

It is not known when the deductions that have been frozen in pension savings will again be transferred to the NPF. It is also not clear whether they will in principle be transferred anywhere.

The prolongation of the moratorium until 2020 also does not increase the confidence of citizens in the government. The introduced restrictions create problems in the domestic financial market as well, since access to external resources is difficult. This is due to the fact that NPFs and management companies invest exclusively in the domestic market.

The introduction of the moratorium significantly reduced the investment activity of the funds, which in the future will inevitably affect the interest rates on loans for both individuals and legal entities, and far from being better side. Such increases will slow down the development of an industry that is not in the best position at the moment. This will be followed by a reduction in the wages of the population and the number of jobs, and hence revenues to the budget of the Pension Fund.

The extension of the freezing of the funded part of the pension will be valid until 2022. For citizens, this means until the end of 2022 all contributions paid to the FIU will be directed only to insurance payments current retirees. Pension savings are formed, since contributions for these purposes are not transferred. Previously, the law provided for a moratorium until 2021. However, already in 2019, freezing extended until 2022. The corresponding law was signed by President Vladimir Putin on December 16, 2019.

The moratorium will apply only to insurance premiums for the formation of pension savings. This does not mean that funded pension payments have also been "frozen" - you can still get them. However, receiving the funded part of the pension.

The Government does not plan to lift the moratorium on the formation of savings, since instead it is already being developed. It will have to replace the funded pension. This concept has been developed since 2014, and the Cabinet of Ministers plans to present it in its final form by the end of 2019.

Vladimir Putin extended the freezing of the funded part of the pension until 2022

On December 16, 2019, President Vladimir Putin signed Law No. 435-FZ. It provides for the extension of the moratorium on funded pensions until 2022 instead of 2021, as previously established.

For the first time, such a moratorium was introduced in 2014 due to the PFR budget deficit. At first, this decision was considered as temporary, but subsequently the moratorium was constantly extended. In 2017, a decision was made to “freeze” until the end of 2020, then it was decided to extend it for another year - until 2021. Now the issue has been returned to extend the moratorium until 2022.

Extending this procedure for another year will reduce the transfer to the Pension Fund in 2022 by approximately 634.8 billion rubles. According to Minister of Labor M. Topilin, a total of about 2 trillion rubles.

What does this mean for citizens?

The “freezing” of pension savings provided for in the law assumes that only . Additional contributions for the formation of pension savings in this case are not received. In fact, this means that everyone is transferred to the FIU, and not the Criminal Code and, chosen by the citizen, and are sent to insurance payments to current pensioners.

Besides:

A return to mandatory is no longer planned, that is, after 2022 it will not be unfrozen.
To replace it, a system of voluntary pension savings will be prepared -.

The concept of a guaranteed pension product assumes that a citizen on one's own will form its funded part of the pension (CPP). The program participant will be able to choose what percentage of earnings he will transfer to form his pension savings (from 1% to 6% of salary). In this case, the payment of 22% is not canceled. The Government plans to submit this project for discussion during 2019.

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What else will happen to the funded part of the pension in 2020

In 2020, there will be changes in legislation related to funded pensions. Some of them are associated with, held in Russia. Planned adjustments The government proposes to make in order to improve the pension provision of Russians and balance the PFR budget in the long term.

Unfreezing the funded pension in 2020 and beyond not planned. Instead, a system of guaranteed pension product will be introduced, the draft law on which was promised to be considered during 2020.
Due to the gradual transition from 2019, the rules for receiving funded pension payments have been changed. Until the end of 2018, the legislation provided that payments can be made only upon reaching retirement age. From 2019, it will be possible to receive the funded part of the pension (CPP) at the age stipulated by the norms of the old legislation (i.e., according to the norms at the end of 2018). This means that, in the general case, it will be possible to receive payments as before. at 55 for women and 60 for men.
When determining the amount of NPP paid in 2020, the expected payment period - 258 months. This parameter directly affects the size of the monthly NPP payment, since its value is determined by the formula:

NCHP = PN / T
- PN is the amount of pension savings on the date of registration of payments;
- T is the expected payment period.

For the first time in Russia, a pension accumulation system was launched as a result of the reform of the pension system since 2002, the main purpose of which was to reduce the burden on the state budget of the country. The pension of residents of the Russian Federation who were born since 1967 was divided into two parts - insurance and funded.

The insurance share of the pension provided for the provision of pension payments, and the funded share, in turn, provided for the formation of the future pension of a working citizen.

Due to the crisis of 2014, which arose due to external and internal circumstances, the Government Russian Federation a decision was made to freeze the funded part of the pension, starting in 2014, and subsequently, two years later, the indexation of pensions in Russia was frozen. According to the latest information from the Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Alexei Moiseev, the freezing of pensions will last until 2020 inclusive.

Due to the difficult economic situation in the country, the Government of the Russian Federation introduced a bill on temporary freezing of the accumulated share.

These necessary measures were taken to fulfill insurance payments, that is, for current state obligations. Thus, the Pension Fund froze the funded part of the pension in order to carry out government programs, as well as reforms.

What does “pension freeze” mean?

This moratorium applies to those citizens of the Russian Federation who have decided to transfer their savings to non-state pension funds or management companies.

That is, the employer transfers 6% (out of 22%) of wages to the Pension Fund of Russia, and the impossibility of disposal is imposed on them. It follows from this that the money did not take a proper part in the financial turnover of the PFR, which led to a significant decrease in the amount of cash receipts. Due to the current shortage of funds, we decided to freeze the funds of emerital savings.

Important. The moratorium is a necessary action of the stabilization processes in the economic sphere of the Russian Federation.

Why is it needed?

Given the difficulties encountered, after the reform, it was necessary to take measures to correct the situation. Thus, in 2014, emerital savings were frozen and funds were directed strictly to the insurance part Pension Fund Russia, which made it impossible to transfer these same 6%, at their own discretion, to illegal armed formations or the Criminal Code. Thus, this made it possible for the authorities to pay off shortcomings and patch up holes in the budget.

The main disadvantage of this freeze is the inability of citizens to accrue funds to non-state pension funds and management companies, whose money could be placed on financial markets. That is, their accumulated part, received from employed citizens in the NPF, could be invested, invested in various projects, which could develop the state in its various areas.

What is the funding of the funded part of the pension?

Basically, these funds go to the money circulation within the Pension Fund to pay other pensioners. It is also implemented for:

payroll for civil servants;
maintaining the financial stability of the country's system;
implementation of state policy;
implementation of new government programs;
implementation of anti-crisis procedures.

Will the frozen funded part of the pension be returned?

The allocated part of the amount from the pension fee in the NPF or the Criminal Code before the moratorium and during it will be automatically credited to the insurance part of the pension and indexed properly.

Important. According to official representatives of the Government of the Russian Federation, the freezing of pension savings is not a withdrawal of funds.

Will the freeze on savings affect the size of the future pension?

For the past five years, the moratorium has continued to operate, which, of course, will affect the amount of further old-age benefits. Such a long freeze will not go unnoticed, since all these years the finances were allocated to patching holes in the budget, and not to developing the economy.

The negative consequences will be as follows:

The impossibility of future pensioners to invest and make contributions to the funded share of the pension through non-state pension funds or management companies, which does not lead to an increase in the amount of income received by citizens.
Due to the introduction of the suspension of contributions to the funded share and transfer to the budget of the Pension Fund, the income from such investments is insignificant.

Conclusion

At the moment, the situation with the end of the moratorium is rather vague, if we take into account the experience of previous years. Every year the Government announces its extension, which leads to not very positive thoughts. By directing finances to the budget of the insurance part, the authorities greatly undermine the confidence of their citizens, because now they do not have the opportunity to conduct investment activities by investing a six percent part of the pension tax to further increase the amount of the pension.

The consequence of this policy of freezing accumulative programs is the decline in investment activity, which in the future, of course, will lead to an inevitable increase in interest on loans for the population and enterprises. This very increase entails a slowdown in the industry, which will lead to a reduction in jobs and, accordingly, inflows to the FIU.

Perhaps the state, on the basis of the circumstances, will return the previously considered opportunity for citizens to independently manage their finances. That is, the Russians will be able to pay regular deductions from their wages to private currency funds, as do, for example, residents of the United States of America, as well as other developed countries.