Translated material
Pension and life
The President instructed to speed up the development of the law on social services
The quality of life of older people, the cost of medicine, queues in nursing homes, the deficit of the pension system and the retirement age - these and other topics were discussed at a meeting of the State Council Presidium, which was held yesterday at the presidential residence in Gorki, chaired by Dmitry Medvedev.Opening the meeting, Dmitry Medvedev recalled that in Russia today there are more than 30 million elderly people (more than 20% of the country's total population - Ed. ), and over the years there will only be more of them. Taking care of them is a priority of the state. We need to do this, Mr. Medvedev explained, so that they “feel involved in normal life.”
Obviously, this can only be done in conditions where older citizens receive a decent pension. In the meantime, despite the fact that the size of pensions is increasing every year, in general their level is clearly insufficient. Although, according to the president, today there are no people left in the country whose pension is less than the subsistence level.
The well-being of elderly citizens directly depends on high-quality and affordable medical care. In this regard, the head of state drew attention to the need to expand the pharmacy network and develop a home delivery system for medicines. At the same time, the state is obliged to control the prices of medicines. “Artificially inflating prices is immoral and criminal,” Mr. Medvedev is convinced.
Accessibility and living conditions in nursing homes and gerontological centers also remain a problem. In total, there are more than 4 thousand such institutions in Russia. According to the president, “they are different in quality, but at the same time the queues at hospitals are not decreasing.” “Among them there are also advanced establishments, where they usually take management to demonstrate how to work, but there are also those where it is scary to go. There is an urgent need to restore order there,” Mr. Medvedev said, explaining that we are not talking about luxury, but about basic things.
Many problems of older people, in his opinion, are due to the fact that it is not prestigious to work with old people today. Both businessmen and officials prefer to pay attention to children rather than pensioners. “Apparently they believe that they themselves will never reach this age. We need to change our thinking. We must move away from Soviet traditions and return to religious ones, since in them respect for elders has always been a priority,” said the head of state.
Society must change its attitude not only towards the elderly, but also towards those who help them - social workers. To achieve this, the prestige of the profession must be increased. Today, the field of social services employs mainly enthusiasts or citizens who came there many years ago and continue to work by inertia. The salaries of social workers in some regions do not even reach the subsistence level, that is, they are comparable to a pension or even less than it.
Last week, the head of state ordered the establishment of the “Best Social Worker in Russia” competition. Young people can also be attracted to work with pensioners through unconventional measures. For example, the president proposed that students count work with older citizens as practice. “This, by the way, will improve the staffing of social bodies,” believes Mr. Medvedev.
The President instructed the government to complete work on the law on social services for citizens within six months. The head of the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Tatyana Golikova, said that the version of the bill itself will be ready “in a month and a half.” However, the adoption of this law must be preceded by discussion with experts and agreement with the regions. Therefore, it was assumed that his draft would be submitted to the State Duma on July 1, 2011. “This is too long a period of time, taking into account the fact that we have a project that can be the basis for discussion, there are people who are able to work - colleagues from the Duma, colleagues from the administration, from the government. So let's give it six months. This will be more or less normal,” Mr. Medvedev answered her, explaining that in this case the State Duma will have time to consider the bill in two, and maybe even three readings.
Ms. Golikova reported that her department is preparing a revision of the set of food products included in the consumer basket for 2012-2016. According to her, the corresponding bill is already in the State Duma. “We expect that already in the second reading we will adopt a new approach to the consumer basket for 2012-2016, which will significantly increase the consumption of meat products, fish, and fruits, which are relatively more nutritionally valuable. At the same time, we will reduce the consumption of bread products, potatoes, eggs and some other products,” the minister said. She also said that by 2013 it is planned to increase pensions by 30%. And by 2016-2020, the minimum pension will be equal to two subsistence minimums.
Last year, 15% of all pensioners' expenses on non-food items were purchases of basic necessities, sanitation and medicine. At the same time, the consumer basket includes only the cheapest drugs - analgin, Zelenka, Valocordin. “The cost of such a set is 670 rubles. When we talk about how much regions should spend on drug provision from their budgets, then, of course, this figure cannot be maintained and is significantly less. Thus, in some regional budgets no more than 178 rubles are allocated for providing medicines to one pensioner. per month,” noted Tatyana Golikova.
The pension system itself is in a difficult situation. Its deficit is now about 30%. This was stated at a meeting of the Presidium of the State Council by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin.
According to the minister, this year 1.116 trillion rubles have been allocated from the budget to finance the pension system. Next year, due to an increase in insurance premiums, the deficit should decrease by 875 billion rubles, but from 2013 it will return to 1.1 trillion, Mr. Kudrin noted. These figures, the minister is sure, indicate an imbalance in the pension system.
One of the solutions to the problem of the country's chronic pension fund deficit is raising the minimum retirement age. True, in different interpretations. For example, Tatyana Golikova said after the meeting that the government and the president are not yet considering the issue of raising the retirement age. However, she does not rule out exploring this issue in the future.
“We have a fairly large number of citizens who receive early pensions. Until we strategically make a decision regarding early pensions, it would not be entirely responsible to make any decision on raising the retirement age,” said Ms. Golikova.
Let us recall that the other day, speaking in the State Duma when considering the 2011 budget in the first reading, Alexei Kudrin said that the retirement age in Russia could be raised in five to seven years. For men it will be 62 years, and for women - 60 years. According to him, a decision on this will be made within a year or two. Previously, the Ministry of Health and Social Development carried out a calculation of the economic feasibility of raising the retirement age and considered such a measure ineffective.