Expert Zubets considers the chances of approval of the bill concerning the pension increase to be high

A bill has been submitted to the State Duma to reduce the age threshold for receiving an increased fixed payment to an insurance pension from 80 to 70 years. The document, prepared by an inter-faction group of deputies, apparently has a fairly high chance of being approved, given the socio-political significance of the initiative and the factor of the parliamentary elections that will be held in Russia in September 2026.

Today, according to the law, a 100% increase in the fixed payment, which will amount to 8907.7 rubles from 2025, is set only for people over 80 years old and disabled people of group I. According to the authors of the bill, citing the general life expectancy in the country of 72.8 years, this bar (80 years) is too high. "A significant portion of our elderly citizens simply cannot exercise their right," says Yaroslav Nilov, head of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy, and Veterans' Affairs.

The document also proposes a differentiated approach: increasing the payment by 100% - from 70 years, by 200% - from 80 years (or disabled people of group I), and by 300% - from 90 years. According to Nilov, the initiative was born on the basis of citizens' requests and received the support of colleagues from different factions.

- Well, that's a great idea, - Alexey Zubets, director of the Center for Social Economics Research, said in an interview with MK. - Our people work until 65-67 years of age at most, after which they quit due to chronic fatigue, age-related diseases, and complete exhaustion of the body. 70 years is the point at which many pensioners lose the opportunity to earn extra money. Plus, the cost of medicines is growing, it is harder to do, say, house cleaning on your own, and sometimes you have to resort to paid services. It is clear that this category needs additional government support, at least for purely physiological reasons. In Russia, two-thirds of pensioners consider themselves poor.

- How likely is it that the bill will be approved? Member of the State Duma Committee on Labor Svetlana Bessarab suggested that some official conclusion from the medical community and health care institutions would be required to change the norm.

- What is the conclusion? That with age comes decrepitude? Well, it's clear as day, excuse me, that the older a person is, the more physical, material, mental and other resources he needs to cover all necessary expenses. For example, if you are 65 years old and need to go somewhere in the city, you can take a tram, at worst. But at 75, this is already more difficult to do, there is only one option - a taxi, which today costs a lot of money. Does the medical community really have to confirm that at 75, citizens are less active than at 65? Take the statistics of Rosstat, which shows at what age Russians actually retire. Or the statistics of the Social Fund, from which it follows that by the age of 65-67, the majority of people receiving an insurance pension no longer have any additional sources of income.

- Will there be funds in the federal budget?

- In terms of importance, this is not even the second question, but the twenty-fifth. It is clearly not the pensioners who need compensation for their old age who should think about this, but the head of the Ministry of Finance, Siluanov. Moreover, if senior comrades in the state ask him to find money, he will definitely find it. The question, I will add, is purely political, considering that in 2026 we have elections to the State Duma. The motivation is generally clear.

- The measure primarily affects the 70-80 age group, since pensioners over 80 already receive an increased fixed payment to their pension. Is there information on how many people are included in it?

- According to Rosstat data, which I found not without difficulty, in the depths of the Unified Interdepartmental Information and Statistical System (EMISS), these are 11.9 million pensioners, of which 4.2 million are men and 7.7 million are women. In the 90-94 age group, this is 110 thousand people for the entire country, while those from 95 to 99 years old are only 25 thousand. There are practically no men in these small age categories.