The government "conceptually solved" the issue of raising the retirement age

The issue of raising the retirement age is "conceptually resolved", Izvestia write , referring to sources close to the government. According to them, there are now discussions when to announce this decision, as well as specific parameters for increasing, taking into account a detailed analysis of socio-economic consequences.

Discussion, sources say, passed into a technological plane. They can announce the decision in 2018, when a new government is formed, the interlocutor of the publication believes. The representative of the expert community, well familiar with the discussion of the issue, said that, most likely, the application will be synchronized with the publication of the main directions of the strategy of long-term socio-economic development, which is prepared by the Center for Strategic Development of Alexei Kudrin.

“I believe that this process can be divided into two parts. One part is to be published this year, the other, which is associated with raising the retirement age, transferred for the period after the 2018 elections,” the source said.

As for the parameters of the increase, so far there is no final solution on this issue, the interlocutors of the publication note. But there are several main options that are now being discussed in the government. So, one of the projects involves raising the retirement age for women to 63 years, for men - up to 65 years. Moreover, the process should be gradual - with a step for six months a year. Another option is to align the retirement age for men and women, raising it to 63 years.

At the same time, a social bloc, publicly opposing raising the retirement age, has already prepared calculations based on raising the retirement age for men to 65 years and women under 60, one of the participants in government meetings said.

At the end of 2016, these calculations during a performance at the financial university under the government were presented by the head of the Pension Fund Anton Drozdov. According to him, if since 2019, the authorities will gradually increase the retirement age and at the same time increase the age for social pension, this will reduce the budget expenditures for pension payments from 2030 by almost 640 billion rubles.

The government did not confirm the information published by Izvestia. “There are no decisions on raising the retirement age,” Olga Golodets representative told RNS.

The inevitability of raising the retirement age in September 2016 was stated by the head of Rosstat Alexander Surinov. According to him, "otherwise we will not live." At the same time, Surinov noted that this is his opinion as a citizen, and not as a government official. "I know a demographic forecast in our country, even with optimistic we simply will not live, someone should work," he said.

The official referred to the experience of neighbors, in particular Kazakhstan. “They understood this and realized us before,” Surinov added.