Who Remains Without The State Pension in Belarus

The "secret" plan of the authorities resembles of de-kulakization.

The Ministry of Finance of Belarus offers to partially shift responsibility for pensions on people, that is, to impose self-imposed compulsory pension insurance.

Despite of statements of Deputy Finance Minister Yury Selivetrau, there is a sense that the authorities are preparing other crack-down on pensioners.

Journalists of tut.by found out who would be subject to compulsory pension savings.

Now Belarus practices PAYG pension system. It means that insurance contributions of employed people are spent on pensioners. The problem in the National Social Security Fund is getting more acute. It is getting harder every year for working people to guarantee pensions for old people.

- Measures on "guarantees" for personal savings are being developed, to adjust the pension system to economic and demographic changes, Deputy Finance Minister Yury Selivestrau tells.

According to the official, these "guarantees" will be of compulsory nature. Layers of the population considered "financially well off" will be the first to experience it. At that, the criteria of "material security" is not specified. It resembles the de-kulakization during the Year of the Great Turn, when a peasant having a cow could be considered rich because his neighbor had none.

Relying on Selivestrau, at the moment the authorities are determining categories that are subject to "personal savings", because the state-guaranteed pension ensured by deductions to the NSSF is not available for them.

- First of all, these measures aim at people with high income who now use the deduction relief.

It will be recalled that the Hi-Tech Park has such benefits. The Deputy Finance Minister kept quiet on whether IT-specialists receive the state-guaranteed pension.

He stated that benefits "can turn into specific savings", that is, some sum of money would be allocated for pensions.

According to the Ministry of Finance, as of January 1, 2018 141.1 thousand Belarusians agreed for voluntary insurance of additional pension. 90.6% or 127.8 thousand of them signed collective agreements at enterprises. 13.3 thousand people or 9.4% showed their own initiative to do this.

The Deputy Finance Minister stressed that few people were willing to make deductions to the retirement insurance company. Now people use this option to ensure their future life, because "depreciations undermined confidence in financial instruments".

However, the authorities intend to "fix" the situation.

However, ways and measures are not revealed.