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Ex-Minister Of Labor: Retirement Age Is Raised With Certain Goal

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Ex-Minister Of Labor: Retirement Age Is Raised With Certain Goal
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The area of the “social state” in Belarus seems to be limited to Drazdy.

Due to yet another increase of the retirement age and the minimum insurance period since January 1, more and more Belarusians fall into the “pension trap”.

To receive a retirement pension, this year it is necessary to have at least 17.5 years of insurance experience.

According to official data, as of January 1, 2020, there were 3,586 people in Belarus who receive social pensions due to a lack of insurance experience. Now it is 115.92 rubles (half of the subsistence level budget) per month.

Is it possible to live on that kind of moneyб and what awaits Belarusian pensioners in the near future? Ex-Minister of Labor Aliaksandr Sasnou is answering the questions of Charter97.org.

- Since January 1, the Belarusian authorities have raised the retirement age and the minimum length of service required to receive a pension. How would you comment on this initiative?

- This is a direct violation of the Constitution. Indeed, according to the Basic Law, adopted laws should not have the opposite effect and worsen the situation of citizens. And the decree on raising the retirement age and the “pension trap” and “length of service trap” created by it have precisely the aforementioned effect.

I used to think that this was all because of illiteracy, that the authorities acted without understanding what they were doing. And now an idea comes to my mind that they are doing it consciously, because they are looking for an opportunity to save money, and are not afraid of possible protests of some 3,500 people.

This is not 350 thousand people. Now, if 350 thousand people were ready to take to the streets, they would have thought, but now they do it consciously. Of course, this is cynical and mean on the part of the authorities. But we ourselves must not give them a reason to do this, and believe in our unwavering place in this life.

- Due to the increase in the minimum length of service, more and more Belarusians fall into the “pension trap”. At the same time, those who retire after the army or the police, at a fairly young age, receive substantial payments. How fair is this?

- The state has not enough funds, there is a huge hole in the Social Protection Fund. Whom will the authorities primarily support? Right, those who protect the safety of those places “near the feedbox”. Therefore, here the question should not even arise - whom to feed in the first place. Of course, the security forces.

They may cover this “pension reform” with various slogans and promises so that the population does not rebel. They can talk about “justice” at the beginning of the reign, about some kind of a “social state”. And then they do what they want. But they wanted one thing: to fill their own pockets, and their close associates’, which Lukashenka did quite successfully, so the area of this so-called social state is limited to Drazdy.

- The social pension for those who fell into the “pension trap” is about $ 50. Is it possible to live on that kind of money?

- The question is rhetorical. Everyone who even just visited Belarus knows that it’s impossible to live on this money, it’s a mockery.

- What would you say to the officials sentencing older people to such living conditions?

- I don’t even know what to tell them. They have completely different goals and objectives. Their task is to sit at the feedbox, to fill a pocket for themselves, their relatives and friends for many decades to come.

And I have nothing to say to such people. To put it mildly, they are dishonest. And this dishonesty, in my opinion, was visible from the very start - since 1994.

- According to official statistics, a retired Belarusian man lives 16 years on average...

- Focusing on average numbers - this does not mean anything, it's like “the average temperature in the hospital”. There are also folk statistics: the graves in cemeteries mostly belong to men of pre-retirement and early retirement age.

With the pension system that we have, with the joint system, when the new generation feeds the outgoing, everything is possible, including the fact that a person cannot (or almost cannot) take advantage of a well-deserved rest and deductions to the state fund, made during entire working life.

- Raising the retirement age this year is not the last. How will the next increase affect the life of Belarusian pensioners?

- Extremely negatively. People will retire later. The situation with jobs for older people remains rather difficult. If there is a job, no one would hire them under this speciality anyway. Therefore, I see no prospects for either this regime or the “economic system” created by it.

And in this regard, raising the retirement age is just a temporary measure, a kind of palliative, which will only allow to delay or reduce problems for a while.

But for how long? Water finds its own level - and it will be even worse. After all, the main thing is that the economy does not work. The views of our authorities about it are primitive: supposedly, the economy will work under manual control. But nothing comes of it!

And it was visible to all thinking people from the very start. Almost 30 years ago it was said that we would not be able to sit on Russia’s oil and gas needle for a long time. But the authorities sat long enough, it’s necessary to recognize their “merit”.They robbed Russia well. But the golden time has ended - and will not return.

Lukashenka has done nothing during this time, except to set up palaces and golden toilets in airplanes. And now he is trying to bring things to normal...

- Justifying the increase of the retirement age in March 2016, Lukashenka said that “at 60, a man is a horse that you can still plow on.” What would you answer him after almost 4 years?

- You can say everything. He used to say all sorts of nonsense, for example, such: “Look, for so many years I have not driven a country into a debt hole”. He probably said this about 15 years ago. But now look - what a debt hole appeared in the country! He says rubbish, it does not require much intelligence to twaddle.

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