Additional payment of pension funds for 30 years of marriage of spouses in Russia in 2020

An additional payment to a pension for 30 years of marriage between spouses is a myth that appeared in the summer of 2017 and still haunts the minds of millions of pensioners in Russia. At the beginning of 2019, there are no laws requiring this type of payment. There are no social benefits for long-term cohabitation at the federal level, but exceptions are possible in the regions. What programs are available for pensioners in certain cities? What package of documents must be presented to receive additional payments? What charges are we talking about? We will consider these and other nuances below.

The news about additional payments to pensions - rights or myth?

Rumors about the issuance of social allowances appeared against the backdrop of proposals by some government officials to encourage pensioners who have been living in a family marriage for a long time. The matter did not go further than talk, but the sensational news had already spread around the Internet and caused a lot of discussions.

Despite numerous articles, in 2020 there is no additional payment to pension benefits for 30 years of “experience” of marriage. Moreover, in the legislation of the Russian Federation there are no benefits at all that provide for an increase in pension payments for marriage or the duration of an official marriage.

Prerequisites for the appearance of surcharges

The state is trying to help its citizens in various ways. One of the most vulnerable categories are pensioners. The payments they receive are sometimes not enough to maintain a decent standard of living. That’s why they are interested in all kinds of additional payments that can be received from the state.

This question has become even more relevant against the backdrop of an improving economic situation in the country. The gradual recovery from the crisis allowed the authorities to use various types of support for pensioners, including:

1. indexation of pensions;
2. providing additional benefits;
3. various surcharges.

This last type of support comes in many different forms. Moreover, they are trying to help pensioners not only nationwide, but also in individual regions.

What is it about?

Despite the strictness of the legislation in this matter, a number of additional payments are available to Russian pensioners. The bonus is accrued if the difference in the size of the husband's (wife's) pension exceeds 2,500 rubles. In this case, one of the spouses must be in official custody.

The bonus is paid to the person who, according to the law, is awarded a large pension. The period of residence of the spouses in this case is not specified - such definitions as “dependent” or “breadwinner” are mentioned.

Receiving a bonus does not depend on the length of stay in an official union. It can be either 1 year or 50 years. During the inspection process, authorized bodies pay attention to the following factors:

• Presence of an official marriage registered in the registry office.
• Running a joint household (most often this means husband and wife living in the same living space).

To receive an allowance, a husband or wife fills out an application and submits the required package of documentation to the representative body of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation at their place of residence. It is worth considering that the size of the payment is not fixed and may change upward when the overall pension payments are revised. If a person is over 80 years old or belongs to the disabled category of citizens (has a disability of the first group), the law requires an increased payment. After the death of the husband (wife), the payment of the bonus ceases and it is removed from regular pension payments.

How to find out about the possibility of applying for an allowance

To check whether a particular person is entitled to auxiliary payments, you will need to go to the local Pension Fund branch. An employee of the institution will inform the applicant about the presence or absence of such an opportunity. If the answer is yes, then the elderly person needs to hand over the following package of documentation to the Pension Fund employee:

• application for registration of additional payment to pension payments;
• passports – yours and your spouse’s passport;
• Marriage certificate;
• certificate of availability of work, if any of the couple is employed.

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Additional payment for length of service in an official marriage by region

As noted, the legislation does not provide for additional payments to citizens who have been officially registered for 30 years or more. This rule applies at the national level, but in the regions the situation is different. A similar benefit is available to pensioners if appropriate local programs are available. Depending on the city of residence and the application of laws, pensioners who have been married for a long period have the right to count on an additional payment.

The downside is that such incentives in most cases are irregular and are issued only once. Even if an additional payment is provided, it is issued when the pensioner applies and submits a package of papers (taking into account the requirements of the authorized bodies). The amount of payments, as well as the requirements for the duration of an official marriage, are determined individually (taking into account the conditions in force locally). For example, in St. Petersburg, one-time payments are provided for pensioners who have been in a marital union for 50 years or more.

Additional terms

Obtaining additional means of subsistence involves the need to fulfill a number of mandatory conditions. These include:

• each spouse reaching retirement age;
• confirmation that one of the pensioners is in the financial care of the other;
• the presence of property owned jointly by the couple during marriage.

If each of the indicated conditions is met, then the partners can count on a slight increase in the family budget or benefits that allow them to save on utility bills. The application for additional payment is considered by a special commission at the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, which makes the final decision.

If the law is adopted, additional payments will be made regardless of the region in which couples with marital experience of more than 30 years live. At the same time, lately, one-time payments associated with the stay of spouses in a registered relationship over a long period of time have become increasingly common.

Under what conditions is pension supplementation made in St. Petersburg and other regions of the Russian Federation?

Russian legislation establishes that local authorities have the right to determine their own rules for additional payments in the absence of contradictions with current legislation. Moreover, the conditions of the programs are almost identical in different regions of the country. As noted, in St. Petersburg, with an officially registered marriage for 50 years or more, you can receive an additional payment under the following conditions:

1. The husband and wife have pensioner status and are citizens of the Russian Federation.
2. The married couple is registered in a living space, which is located on the territory of St. Petersburg.
3. The required cohabitation date was reached after January 1, 2012.
4. The spouses completed and submitted an application to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation within 3 years from the date of reaching the required date of cohabitation (for which payments are made).

How can pensioners receive additional payments?

To receive money, pensioners need to complete certain actions:

• come to the Pension Fund at the place of registration and find out if there are benefits for them;
• submit an appropriate application for payment;
• document the cohabitation for the required period;
• provide information about your spouse’s employment.

Next, you should wait for the application to be reviewed and further payment. In this case, the amount of payment is determined individually in each specific case.

An application to the Pension Fund does not guarantee receipt of this type of additional payment, since the corresponding law has not been adopted at the federal level.

And the solution to the issue remains solely at the discretion of regional authorities. Some regions are already successfully implementing this initiative, while others are not yet.

There are still nuances to receive a bonus that need to be taken into account:

• both spouses must be pensioners;
• the pension of one of the spouses must be greater than that of the other by at least 2.5%. This will serve as confirmation that one of the spouses is the breadwinner, and the other is in his care.

Documents for registration

To process the payment, you must provide the following documents:

• marriage registration certificate;
• savings book of one of the spouses;
• passport or other document that proves identity.

If all conditions are met, then you can apply for an additional payment to the pension for spouses who have been married for more than 30 years. Next, the application will be considered by the commission, and a decision will be made, most often satisfying the request.

If the spouses are not able to submit all the necessary papers on their own, then a legal representative (relatives, friends) can do this for them using a notarized power of attorney.

How much can you receive as a supplement to your pension?

The size of payments that pensioners can count on deserves special attention. Here are the conditions:

• 50 thousand rubles are received by residents of St. Petersburg who have been married (if officially registered) for 50 years or more.
• 60 thousand rubles are awarded to pensioners who have celebrated their 60th anniversary of marriage.
• 70 thousand rubles is a payment that is provided for married couples who have lived together since the wedding for more than 70 years.

The peculiarity of payments is that taxes are not taken from them, which allows you to receive the full amount and use the funds for any purpose.

What are the rules for awarding points?

The starting point for accruals according to the point system is January 2020.
According to the new format for pension calculations, the amount of the promised bonus is directly related to the number of points accumulated by a particular participant in the specified program. Moreover, the cost of a point is not a constant value. Promotion or demotion is based on the results achieved in the current year. The absence of questions regarding the calculation of contributions transferred to the Pension Fund depends on the transparency and maximum accessibility of the program of interest to the population. Thanks to this fact, control over the distribution of such amounts is not overly difficult.

Thanks to the changes that have occurred, special categories of citizens will be able to count on timely compensation for benefits. It is guaranteed that the money provided by the state program. support will go to the specified addressee. It is also worth noting that it is easier to count funds transferred by employers.

However, at the time of the launch of this program (2015), a limit of 3 points was established. And the amount of one point is justified by the amount of payments transferred by the employer for the previous accounting year. Moreover, regarding the volume of interest, one has to focus on the ratio of the sums of points of persons who retired on time or early, with the option on special conditions. In this case, the main requirement is considered to be changes only below the inflation rate.

However, the situation developed in such a way that the launch of the points system did not bring the expected results. The negative side of the matter is:

• Some violations of accrual transparency;
• Growing distrust in the pension formation system.

But even under such circumstances, the system continues to work today.
So, from 2020, a potential pensioner will be able to accumulate the required number of points and years of work experience. Starting from 2020, for a Russian pensioner, 11.4 pension points and at least 8 years of insurance experience will be enough. But, with each subsequent year, the right to receive a pension comes up against more stringent requirements. But in any case, the number of points cannot increase beyond 30.

Results

Let us draw the following conclusions:

• The mentioned benefits are typical for the regions and apply depending on the place of residence of pensioners. For example, in St. Petersburg there is a program that allows you to receive payments if you have lived together officially for more than 50, 60 and 70 years. The size of the one-time payment in this case is different.
• A pension supplement for 30 years of residence, as many say, is not provided. The money is paid when one of the spouses is dependent on the other, and the pensions of the husband and wife are different. We are talking about the additional payment that the breadwinner spouse receives. The duration of the marriage does not matter.
• To receive the benefit, you need to come to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and hand over the package of papers mentioned in the article. The payment is provided if the husband and wife are officially registered and live in the same living space.

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Anna Vladimirovna

I am the editor-in-chief of our information portal, and I carefully review all the material from our experts before publishing them here. An economist by education, specialization in accounting, analysis and audit. Experience as an accountant for 10 years. I can work with long texts and legal documentation.

Who can be considered dependents

There is no clear definition of this concept in the Law. But, if you analyze the articles of the Law, you can understand who is considered a dependent:

• children under 18 years of age. These are not only natural children, but also those who were adopted. Or in respect of which the pensioner is a guardian or trustee. That is, an additional payment to the pension will be received for a child who is in a dependent position on the pensioner;
• close relatives of the pensioner who are under 18 years of age and who are supported by him;
• minor grandchildren of a pensioner who are left without parents and receive a pension assigned in the event of the loss of a breadwinner;
• persons under 23 years of age who are dependent on a pensioner and continue to study. Additional payment is made only for full-time students. If such a student is transferred to another form of education, the additional payment will be waived;
• disabled spouse or spouse of a pensioner. This status can be obtained upon reaching age or for medical reasons. In this case, the status must be confirmed by the conclusion of the ITU commission. Usually in such cases the second spouse is also awarded a pension. He is recognized as a dependent if his pension is less than the subsistence minimum;
• disabled parents of a pensioner. An additional payment for a dependent to the pension is calculated if such parents are old-age or disability pensioners. The pension amount must be below the minimum.

The insurance part of the pension must be divided by 228 (the number of months of waiting for payments), then the amount of the additional payment is added (the additional payment is calculated based on the number of dependents and the category of the recipient).

The number of dependents for whom assistance is paid is limited by law. There cannot be more than three. But additional payments can be received for different categories of dependents. For example, one pensioner can receive an additional payment to the pension for a disabled spouse and for a student under 23 years of age, that is, as a spouse and parent at the same time.

Brothers and sisters who meet the age requirements established by law can also be considered dependents. Age restrictions do not apply to disabled people who received a disability category before the age of 18. Payment to a pensioner for a dependent is made to pensioners if the person under care does not have legal parents who are able to work.

Thus, at the state level, dependents include the following categories:

• children under the age of majority;
• brothers and sisters (under 18 years old);
• minor grandchildren;
• students and students under 23 years of age;
• disabled people;
• pensioners;
• citizens with whom a preliminary “rent agreement” has been drawn up under special conditions.

The concept of a dependent is still not defined by law. A person who is fully supported and cared for by a pensioner may fall into this category.

Depending on the situation, the following are considered dependents:

• minor children who cannot care for and provide for themselves due to their age, both relatives and adopted or taken into guardianship;
• people with disabilities or disabled people, as well as citizens who are unable to carry out independent labor activities, but only if they are officially so;
• any family members who have not reached the age of majority, including nephews, brothers, grandchildren, sisters, etc., who have lost the support of their own parents;
• elderly people whose age has passed the milestone of 80 years;
• pensioners who, for some reason, are unable to care for themselves.

Thus, citizens who have retired, but are raising young children or other relatives, caring for elderly parents or the disabled, are entitled to a fixed cash supplement. Today, all pensioners with dependents receive an increased pension, and from the new year it is planned to increase its size.

What are the features of the point system?

The goal of developing a points system on the part of the Pension Fund is to completely eliminate problems for citizens receiving a legal salary.
According to experts, this category of pensioners should have no reason to lose points. True, in real life everything does not look as cloudless as we would like. The only option for citizens who do not have enough points is to continue working in the same place for 5 additional years. But if circumstances develop in such a way that even after these 5 years there is a shortage of points, then, according to the assurance of the head of the Pension Fund, such persons will be provided with the most ordinary social pension. The incentive to action, in this case, will be the fact that the lack of continuous 5 years of experience in one place entails the complete exclusion of the right to a pension. Moreover, already from 2020. it will take not 5 years of work in one place, but 8. In addition to this requirement, the future pensioner is required to control the implementation of insurance payments by the employer. Without meeting this condition, one cannot even dream of a minimum pension.