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- Higher contribution: in Russia they want to launch a new pension program with state support
Higher contribution: in Russia they want to launch a new pension program with state support
A new pension program with state support is being developed in the Russian Federation, which will be based on corporate pensions and employer contributions, Izvestia found out. It is assumed that upon employment, the employee will be automatically connected to the savings system, but he will be able to refuse to participate. There will be no government co-financing in the new mechanism, but the authorities are discussing additional tax incentives that should motivate businesses to participate in shaping future employee pensions. The initiative is planned to be sent to relevant departments this fall. How it will affect the savings of citizens is in the Izvestia article.
What will be the new pension program?
The market is developing the parameters of a new pension program with state support, Sergey Belyakov, president of the National Association of Non-Governmental Pension Funds (NAPF), told Izvestia. According to him, it will be funded primarily or entirely by the employer, and the employee will automatically connect to the system when applying for a job, retaining the right to opt out.
The so—called established pension program (UPP) will become a new tool, the purpose of which is to create an additional pension for employees, Sergey Belyakov explained. It will work in parallel with the Long-term Savings Program (LDS). However, the main difference is that the PDS stimulates independent savings of citizens and provides for state co-financing of up to 36 thousand rubles per year. It is assumed that the new program will not have such a mechanism, but it provides tax benefits for both the employee and the employer.
It is planned that under the program, the employer will transfer money to a separate account of the employee in the NPF. These funds will then be invested by the fund to protect savings from inflation and multiply. Payments from such an account will be able to be received upon reaching retirement age.
The concept has already been discussed with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Development and has caused a positive reaction, the head of the NAPF said. There were no fundamental objections from the departments, and the details of the initiative are currently being worked out. The association expects to send the prepared proposals to the government in the fall.
Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Finance about the agency's position on the launch of a new pension program.
Why is the bet on corporate pensions
The potential of corporate pension programs remains very high today, the NAPF said. Currently, 74.4 million people are employed in the Russian economy, but only 2.8 million employees, or about 3.8% of the total number of employees, are saving for a future pension through an employer. Such programs are not related to the state, they are launched only by individual companies for their employees, and they are not widespread.
If participation grows to at least 20%, corporate programs will reach about 15 million people, which is almost one in ten residents of the country, the association noted. With further development of the system, the indicator can reach half of the working population — approximately 37 million people.
In many countries, such mechanisms have already become the norm. For example, in the Netherlands, about 90% of employees are covered by corporate pension programs, similar models operate in Germany and China. Thanks to this, pensioners receive 60-80% of their previous earnings after retiring on well-deserved rest. In Russia, the average pension is 25 thousand rubles, and the salary is about 100 thousand rubles. That is, a person's income is often reduced by about four times after completing their work.
In addition, savings through corporate pensions are usually larger than individual ones. According to the NAPF, the average monthly contribution for them in 2025 reached 61 thousand rubles, which is about nine times higher than the average contribution for individual non-state pension programs, where it is about 4.5 thousand rubles.
—The automatic connection of employees with the right to opt out is an approach that has proven effective in international practice," said Oksana Ivanova, CEO of NPF Socium.
The state pension provides only a basic level of income, and in order to maintain the usual standard of living, most people need additional savings, said Irina Baranova, Deputy General Director of NPF Gazfond PN. According to her, the NAPF initiative looks like a logical step.
If a young specialist starts saving 1% of his salary from the first working month at the age of 20, and the employer adds another 1%, then by the time he retires, he will be able to generate pension capital of more than 10 of his average annual income, explained Andrey Osipov, CEO of NPF VTB. Coupled with government payments, the accumulated amount is enough to receive a pension the same as the average salary during his entire career.
The distributive pension system, built on the principle of "workers support pensioners," is facing an increasing burden, said Olga Belenkaya, Head of the Macroeconomic Analysis Department at Finam. According to her, life expectancy is gradually increasing, but the birth rate remains low, which is why there are fewer and fewer working citizens for every pensioner. As a result, such a mechanism eventually becomes less able to provide a decent level of replacement for lost earnings after retirement.
"The traditional responses to these challenges — raising the retirement age or increasing insurance premiums — are unpopular and have their own economic limitations,— Olga Belenkaya emphasized.
Global experience shows that corporate pension programs can significantly increase citizens' incomes after retirement, Oksana Ivanova noted. The NAPF added that the widespread use of such mechanisms is usually provided by two main incentives — legislative requirements on the participation of employers and tax benefits or relief on insurance premiums. It is on these principles that it is planned to build a new established pension program.
How profitable can the new system be?
Employers will be interested in participating only if there are tangible tax benefits, says Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Global. Otherwise, the business may begin to compensate for additional costs by reducing premiums or slowing salary growth.
At the same time, some of the tax benefits are already in effect. Employers' expenses for corporate pensions in the range of 12% of the wage fund are not subject to insurance premiums and are taken into account as part of expenses when calculating income tax.
However, additional incentives may also be launched — Sergey Belyakov, in a conversation with Izvestia, noted that the issue of tax benefits for participation in the SCP is being worked out not only for employers, but also for participants.
There is a possibility that the established pension program will guarantee only lifetime pension payments. This was previously reported by Galina Morozova, Chairman of the Board of Directors of NPF Future, at the CBonds forum. In this case, the savings will be paid evenly until the end of the participant's life.
For comparison, according to the PDS, it is now possible to set a payment deadline or withdraw them in a lump sum after reaching pre—retirement age (60 years for men and 55 for women), although lifetime payments can also be requested. In the SCP, the approach may be less flexible than in the PDS.
The amount of lifetime payments is usually lower, since the accumulated amount is distributed over the entire expected period of a person's life, explained Vasily Kutyin, Director of analytics at Ingo Bank. With urgent payments, the money is divided into a predetermined period, so monthly transfers are noticeably larger.
The lifetime format is beneficial to non-governmental pension funds themselves to a certain extent, as it allows them to keep customer funds under management for longer and receive investment income, Natalia Milchakova added.
However, for some citizens, guaranteed payments throughout their lives may be more attractive, according to Oleg Abelev, head of the analytical department at the Rikom-Trust investment company. This is especially true for people with low incomes, for whom stable financial support is more important than the opportunity to receive accumulated funds faster.
At the same time, the final parameters of the program are still being discussed. According to Sergey Belyakov, the amount of contributions, the procedure for automatically connecting employees, the mechanism of transition between employers and other key parameters have yet to be determined.
If the initiative is approved, it may become a new driver for the development of the pension system of the Russian Federation, as it already happened after the launch of the long-term savings program. At the same time, the introduction of the PDS was prepared for about three years. It is still unclear whether the development of the established pension program can be completed earlier, but the process may take place faster, since additional co-financing of such savings will not be required.
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