The State Duma of Russia has taken up in its initial reading a draft law aimed at boosting the average pension for non-working retirees by 7.5 percent, effective January 1, 2024. This development was reported by RIA News and has since been examined by various parliamentary and economic observers.
Under the proposed changes, those receiving an insurance pension would see monthly payments rise to 22,605 rubles, while recipients of an old-age pension would receive 23,449 rubles each month. The increases translate to an uplift of 1,572 rubles for insurance pensioners and 1,631 rubles for those with old-age pensions. The proposal aligns with Russia’s ongoing policy efforts to adjust living allowances in step with economic conditions and inflation projections.
State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin stated that the pension rise for non-working retirees would impact more than 32 million Russians, underscoring the large demographic breadth of those affected and the significance of the measure in the broader social protection framework.
In remarks accompanying the draft, Volodin noted that the government had already allocated the necessary funds to support retirees. He added that additional federal budget expenditures to raise pensions in 2024 were expected to total around 234 billion rubles, highlighting the fiscal scale involved in the reform package and its expected distribution across the public budget for the year ahead.
The government has presented the pension increase alongside the draft federal budget for 2024–2026 to the lower house of parliament. As part of the same legislative agenda, lawmakers were scheduled to review in a separate reading on October 25 a bill focused on raising the minimum wage, signaling a broader wave of social policy measures under consideration during this parliamentary session.
In September, Svetlana Bessarab, a member of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs, told socialbites.ca that the inflation forecast from the Ministry of Economy supported a 7.5 percent indexing of pensions for non-working retirees starting January 1, 2024. She also indicated that pensions would be indexed again in 2025, with adjustments planned for February 1 and April 1, reflecting a staged approach to maintaining purchasing power amid price trends.
Questions among the public often circle around practical steps for retirees to ensure their pension entitlements are updated in line with the new rules. While the bill awaits passage, experts emphasize the importance of timely notifications from pension agencies and regular checks of individual pension records to verify that the correct base amounts and indexing schedules are applied. This attention to detail helps retirees maximize the benefits authorized by law and adapt to the evolving social support landscape—an ongoing priority for both lawmakers and the government as fiscal plans unfold in the coming years.
Overall, the proposed pension enhancements reflect a policy objective to strengthen financial security for older citizens while balancing the state budget. Observers note that the eventual outcomes will depend on legislative passage, implementation timelines, and the effectiveness of administrative processes in delivering the indexed payments to millions of recipients across the country. As the debate progresses, stakeholders will be watching how these changes interact with other social policy initiatives and with broader economic conditions that influence household welfare in Russia.