Putin softens pension reforms after voters’ outcry
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has offered some concessions to a package of pension reforms that have hit his approval ratings.
President Putin said the new retirement age for women will be raised to 60 from the current 55, instead of the 63 previously proposed.
However, he did not offer to change the proposed figure for men, which is rising from 60 to 65.
The changes are supposed to be raised by one year every year over the course of the next five years.
The government’s plan to raise the retirement age for both men and women announced in June has caused widespread discontent. In Russia, the average life expectancy for women is 78 and 67 for men.
Many Russian families, especially in rural areas and small towns, have relied on pensions as an extra income at a time younger people often struggle to find a stable job.
The proposals weighed on President Putin’s approval ratings, which have dropped below 70% – the lowest level since the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Russia’s pensioners who have seen their incomes rising steadily under President Putin have been one of the president’s staunchest supporters.
President Putin said the reform was necessary and “cannot be put off any longer”. Without increasing the retirement age, he said Russia’s pension system “would crack and eventually collapse”.
“I’m asking you to be understanding of this,” he said.
Russia’s economy has been hit over the past few years by Western sanctions following the annexation of Crimea and also by lower oil prices.
In addition to lowering the proposed retirement age for women, President Putin voiced other suggestions aimed at softening the blow – including an idea to keep old-age benefits such as tax breaks for senior citizens even before they reach the retirement age.
The president also said laws should be introduced to make it an offence for employers to fire workers who are approaching pension age.
Putin said he had always been against the “painful” changes to the pension system abut he said “serious demographic problems” meant there was no alternative to the increase. By 2044, the number of pensioners could equal the number of people in work, according to government forecasts.