Penza, 23 December 2016. PenzaNews. The editor of the Penza newspaper “Molodoi Lenivets” Yulia Izmailova, who asked the president of Russia Vladimir Putin about the indexation of payments to working elderly population a year ago, had a chance to ask the head of the state the question about pensions at the great press conference in Moscow on Friday, December 23.

Photo: Rt.com

When the presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov wanted to give the floor to another journalist, Vladimir Putin paid attention to Yulia Izmailova.

“It is written ‘Pensions’ over there. This issue is very important. If you have questions, you are welcome to ask them,” he said.

“Here, some categories of people retire before the appointed time. However, at present the cases when teachers and medical workers have to stand up for their right to earlier retirement in the court became more often. That is why I have a question: Is there no necessity to reform the institute of early retirement? And, please, tell us what pensioners should expect next year?” the journalist from Penza asked.

Answering the question, Vladimir Putin reminded that in the 1990s – at the beginning of the 2000s the size of pension provision was not connected with the length of working experience and the salary.

“All people became equal. Many people pointed to this, they said that it was unfair. Great changes were made. What are these changes and what is the present pension system based on? It is based on three elements. The first is the length of working experience, the second – the level of salary, and the third – the age when a person decides to retire and starts completing formalities to obtain the pension rights. These three elements form the core of the pension system. They will remain unchangeable and we will use these fundamental bases for the pension system improvement,” the president of Russia noted.

Returning to the issue of the early retirement, he admitted that it “requires additional attention”.

“Many categories of people retire earlier. I will not get so far ahead and speak about what is planned to be done, but it should be noted that any innovations in this sphere must be discussed openly and introduced only after thorough analysis. We will act very carefully. As for the nearest future, I can say that at the beginning of the year, as it was planned, we will pay 5,000 rubles to all pensioners including military pensioners and alike, irrespective of the level of their pension income. By the way, for some of the categories, the payment of 5,000 rubles is even more than the possible annual indexation,” Vladimir Putin said.

He emphasized the fact that the state will fulfil all obligations.

“The budget for the next year includes the funds for the 2016 inflation adjustment of payments to recipients of age-related pension. It means that we will return to the execution of the existing law. And I think, starting from April 1, social pensions will be adjusted as well,” the president of Russia summed up.