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The Government of the Russian Federation discussed the indexation of social benefits. Due to high inflation it was proposed to increase the minimum wage, the cost of living and insurance pensions by 10%. The final decision on the amount of indexation will be made by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In Russia, subsistence rate is 12,654 rubles ($204.21,) and the minimum wage from January 1, 2022 is set at 13,890 rubles ($224.16.)
The increase in the living wage, as well as the minimum wage, is primarily due to inflation in the country. As reported in the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the annual inflation rate was fixed at 16.7% in March, and the price increase was already 17.5% in annual terms in early April.
In this regard, President Vladimir Putin has instructed the Federal Antimonopoly Service and members of the government to closely monitor the price situation in the domestic market. Above all, as the President said, this applies to drugs, medical products and essential commodities. Later, as reported by the media, Putin said that stocks of goods in food stores are being replenished, and the rush in demand for food products has decreased and come back to normal.
Meanwhile, back in March, the head of state instructed the government to develop a comprehensive solution to increase state support for Russian citizens by April 20. Against the background of rising prices for various groups of goods, primarily for food and medicines, the standard of living of many citizens declined sharply. Families with children, pensioners and people with disabilities were the first to feel it.
According to Lenta.ru, Putin admitted that an economic crisis had started in our country after Western anti-Russian sanctions had been imposed in response to a special military operation in Ukraine. As a result, there was a jump in prices for food, medicine and other goods that are badly needed by the population. It is quite understandable that all this sharply reduced the purchasing power of citizens.
The vast majority of people immediately felt it on their family budgets. According to Putin, it is necessary to work to reduce poverty and inequality in such a difficult situation.
Minister of Labor and Social Protection Anton Kotyakov said that the government developed a set of measures for unplanned indexation of the minimum wage, social benefits and pensions at the beginning of May. All these proposals were submitted to the President of the Russian Federation. Moreover, as stressed by Kotyakov, members of the government have developed and proposed not one, but several options for state support of the population.
Meanwhile, as reported by Izvestia, earlier, a member of the Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs Svetlana Bessarab said that the recalculation of pensions, social benefits and salaries of public sector employees will occur by the end of the first half of 2022.
At the beginning of May Bessarab specified that social payments, additional indexation of pensions and the minimum wage will be made automatically. Citizens will not have to go anywhere and submit any applications.
As Putin said on March 16, the increase in social payments, benefits, pensions, the minimum wage and salaries of state employees will be made in the near future. The head of state specified that these measures are not only of economic nature, but are also issues of social justice.
Meanwhile, measures to improve the financial level of the population, especially the most vulnerable, are already being taken. Thus, in April, social pensions were indexed by 8.6%. As is known, such pensions are received by citizens of the Russian Federation, who for various reasons were not able to work out the labor experience necessary for the accrual of insurance pensions. Previously indexation was made to civilian nonworking pensioners, as well as military pensioners. Families with low incomes received a payment for children from 8 to 16 years old.
The indexation of pensions, social benefits, the minimum wage and wages will enable millions of Russians to increase their family budgets.
Now the Russian government is solving many problems that have recently arisen. Intensive work is going on in the industry to replace those goods and products that were previously not produced in our country, parallel import programs are being developed, cooperation with countries that have not joined Western anti-Russian sanctions is deepening, and questions of increasing the volume of Russian exports to friendly countries are being reconsidered.