How is retirement service time established?
“If until the end of 2001 only the length of service was calculated and the size of the assigned pension depended on its value, then after January 1, 2002, due to the pension reform, the insurance officer became more important.” Scientific Research expert told socialbites.ca of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the portal “Myfinance.rf” Olga Daineko.
He explained the difference between these types of experiences.
Total length of service is the number of years worked (working time) and the number of some non-working periods (for example, parental leave, military service, and some other periods).
The insurance period is the period during which the employer or the insured person (within the framework of voluntary legal relations) transfers the insurance premiums to the individual personal account (IPA). The amount sent to the Pension Fund of Russia (currently the Social Fund of Russia – SFR) is converted into pension points, which affects the amount of pension. We are talking about BPM – private pension coefficients. The larger the IPC, the larger the pension.
As a rule, ILS is opened automatically by the pension authority – after employment, information from the employer is received in electronic document management format and is opened if the person did not have an ILS before. An account can be opened upon a person’s personal application and upon receipt of information from other government bodies (for example, the immigration service). An individual personal account can be opened not only by a citizen of Russia, but also by a foreigner or stateless person living or working here.
Daineko said that information on the pension rights created can be seen in the extract from the ILS. The fastest way to get it is through your personal account on the government services portal or on the website of the Russian Social Fund. This takes a few minutes. A quote is also provided upon personal application to the Financial Markets Service or MFC.
How are retirement points calculated?
“You need to monitor the status of your personal account regularly (at least once a year) in order to direct efforts to correct possible errors “without delay”. It is often more difficult to prove that you are right over time, so you need to detect any inaccuracies as early as possible so that they do not prevent you from receiving the money you earned when applying for a pension in the future,” Daineko said.
This can occur if part of the service period or “social” non-working periods for which pension points are built are not taken into account, even if there is no deduction.
The list of such periods includes: leave to care for a child under 1.5 years old or a disabled person and elderly people over 80 years old, compulsory military service, mobilization period or participation in military operations as part of volunteer formations. The list also includes the period of inability to find a job for a soldier’s spouse, the period of being on sick leave, the period of registration of unemployment with the employment agency and some other situations.
Daineko gave an example: Points for a calendar year of parental leave of up to 1.5 years are calculated as follows. A person who is on leave to care for a disabled child or their first child under the age of one and a half gets 1.8 points. The period of leave to care for a second child up to the age of 1.5 is given 3.6 points. And 5.4 points – for the period of leave to care for the third or fourth child up to 1.5 years of age.
“These periods are counted as the insurance period of only one of the parents, but this period cannot exceed six years and cannot exceed four children. Additionally, if there is a working period for which insurance premiums are paid before and/or after parental leave, the period of parental leave will also be counted towards the insurance period,” explained Daineko.
The expert said that if he worked during parental leave, he has the right to choose which pension point will be used when calculating his pension – for working time or parental leave. Daineko notes that it will not be possible to summarize the periods – you will have to choose one of two options, but SFR first of all takes into account the period for calculating the insurance pension, which gives a large pension coefficient.
He explained that it is important that the non-working period specified for early retirement is not included in the long service period calculation, where the service period is 37 years for women and 42 years for men.
Daineko gave another example. Military service (both compulsory and contract) counts at a rate of 1:1 (day to day, one year – 1.8 retirement points). And the period of participation in a special military operation (during service or participation in a volunteer formation) is counted as double the insurance period (accounting for 3.6 pension points per year). He noted that mobilization will not disrupt special services for early retirement (for example, workers in the Far North or hazardous industries).
How to “lose” experience
According to Daineko, experience can sometimes be miscalculated.
“Primarily due to technical and software errors. When you contact SFR to eliminate inaccuracies or look for missing experience, there is no need to panic if the reason is technical. It is better to wait for the problems to be resolved and the deadlines will be announced by SFR. The expert noted that in most cases everything “falls into place” and such failures are isolated.
According to him, you do not need to come to the SFR in person for clarification – you can submit an appeal through your personal account. The period for reviewing and responding to the application is 10 days.
“The reason for the loss of seniority may be more serious: an unscrupulous employer may not fully transfer the employee’s insurance premiums or transfer incomplete data and, in the worst case, may not “show up” the employee at all,” Daineko said.
According to him, the employee himself is not always aware that he is paid a “black” salary.
“You must understand that an employee’s insurance premiums are the responsibility of the employer and the financial expenses that unscrupulous companies try to save. Daineko explained that the employee ultimately suffered from “gray” and “black” schemes.
He gave an example. An employment contract has been officially signed with the employee, but the employer does not provide information about the employee to the Financial Markets Service. Such an employee does not work for the pension authority and does not accrue service time and points. It will be possible to prove your work experience and force the employer to make insurance contributions to the Russian Social Fund only through the court – a lawsuit is filed and proof of work activity is provided.
“In such a situation, there is no point in bargaining with the employer; he was aware of what he had done and had not planned to pay, so there is no point in delaying making a claim. “First of all, because a positive court decision would, from a legal point of view, be a bias (something to be taken into account without verification) in case of future litigation with the Financial Markets Service,” he explained.
According to him, a special place among the “lost cases” is the period of service that occurred before 2002, that is, before the period of registration in the compulsory pension insurance system, after which Russians received a “green card” from SNILS. . From 2002 to 2005, the Pension Fund collected information from employers on employees’ total length of service (as of December 31, 2001).
“But not all employers provided such information, so this period is often lost or reflected with gaps and inaccuracies. In such a case, you must contact the Financial Markets Service and document the “lost” working hours. Since from the moment of receipt of SNILS all information about work activity is taken into account on the basis of the work book, this will be the main document confirming the period of service,” the expert advised.
According to him, if the entry into the work book is entered with errors, unapproved corrections or an illegible seal of the organization, you need to be prepared for the fact that the working time will not be included in the insurance period. He explained that additional documentation confirming length of service (written employment contracts, work orders, pay stubs and other important personnel or accounting documents) will be needed.
The expert noted that an easier way to return severance pay is to contact the employer to correct the record, but this is not always possible in case of liquidation of the organization.
“In exceptional cases, statements from colleagues are accepted as evidence of work experience. However, this is done under the condition that due to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, fires, documents confirming business activity are physically missing and their repair is impossible. For example, there is no information in the archive,” said Daineko.
The expert said that if there is no documentation for other reasons that are not due to the fault of the employee (negligent storage, damage, destruction), the working hours are confirmed by the testimony of two or more witnesses who know this employee.
“Witnesses must have documentation confirming that they work for a joint employer. Witness testimony cannot confirm more than half of the required insurance experience,” Daineko summarized.
According to him, if the pension institution makes a reasoned decision not to take into account the declared length of service, evidence of the person’s work activity will have to be proven in court.