Pensions will increase in Belarus from December 1st

The President of Belarus heard a report on improving the work of the Social Security Fund and measures to increase support for pensioners and physically challenged children. Labour and Social Security Minister Irina Kostevich was the keynote speaker. Attending the meeting were also Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko who oversees social security matters, Deputy Head of the Belarus President Administration Maksim Yermolovich, Finance Minister Yuri Seliverstov, Minsk Mayor Vladimir Kukharev and Minsk Region Governor Aleksandr Turchin.

Today, the Social Security Fund is operating with a surplus: there is more money in the accounts than is needed for payments. All this is due to the timely payment of insurance premiums. The average pension in the country today is 670 Belarusian rubles. Compared to December 2021, it increased by almost a quarter. During the event, Aleksandr Lukashenko said that he had signed a decree on increasing pensions by an average of 5 percent from December 1st, and added that before that, pensions had already been increased twice this year. “We will raise pensions for our pensioners by 5-6 percent on December 1st. I must say, if we take into account the macroeconomic situation, as is done all over the world, pensioners should not blame us for a small increase in pension benefits. That’s above the inflation today. Well, if we take another step, we will outrun inflation. You know, pensioners may hear my reasoning today and say: ‘Probably, he is not on top of his brief. Some things have risen in prices by 10 percent, even 20 percent’. That’s why I emphasise that this is the average figure,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko. 
Among the proposals that were sounded at the report to the Head of State, there were those that are in line with the digitalisation of processes. The President immediately drew attention to the issue of organising proper data protection of the relevant electronic databases so that information from there would not later be posted on some enemy resources.  
Social Security Minister reported to the Head of State on the proposal to rebuild the social insurance system and integrate the pension and social insurance (sick pays and child allowances) system into one. In other words, to put everything (appointment and payment of pensions and other allowances , the source of their financing) under the jurisdiction of one body — the Social Security Fund.
Based on the results of the report and discussion, it was decided in the end not to introduce any major changes to the pension system. It means that the Social Security Fund will continue to accumulate contributions from employers, while local social security departments will continue to deal with the appointment and payment of pension benefits.
“The system is fine-tuned, it has been in place for more than a decade. Changing the structure and merging these two bodies [the fund and departments] is a rather risky step. In order to avoid risky situations that could cause tension, it was decided to retain the existing structures the way they are,” the Minister explained to journalists after the report to the President.
According to her, the Social Security Fund now employs 1,225 people, it has solid information bases and some promising and perspective solutions. “We will continue to develop the information component of the fund. We are very interested in keeping people updated about their employment history and the amount of pensionable salary, so that they know what their pension will be in the future. The fund has capacity to do this. Since 2003, we have been keeping personalised records, and we know the employment history of each person for the past 20 years, including information on where they worked, how much contributions they paid,” said the head of the ministry.
Irina Kostevich believes that this way each person approaching retirement age will know in advance the size of their state pension, and thus they will be able to make an informed choice whether to use the voluntary funded pension arrangements. 
As for the personalised database, which has been running since 2003, it will be expanded. This will be a kind of digital duplicate of an employment record book, which will come in handy in case a person loses his/her regular employment record book.

Based on materials of sb.by and belta.by