Experience for calculating pensions: general, labor, insurance

Required length of service for a pension by law

The process of determining the required length of service for a pension is fully regulated by law and is based on the provisions:

1. Resolution No. 555, adopted by the Government of the Russian Federation on July 24, 2002, which specifies the procedure on the basis of which the insurance period is calculated.
2. Law No. 173-FZ, adopted on December 17, 2001, describing the process of assigning a labor pension.
3. Law No. 400-FZ, which describes insurance pensions and the period of work that allows you to count on pension contributions.

There are several conditions that must be met to make pension contributions:

• length of work experience – from 9 years of work or more;
• individual coefficient (IPC) – from 13.8.

Pension points that determine the IPC are calculated based on the income that a person received during his work.

According to the legal norms established by Law No. 400, the coefficient and duration, how many years of experience are needed for a pension, will gradually increase. For example, in 2019, to assign a pension, the minimum mandatory insurance period increases to 10 years, and the coefficient is 16.2 or higher.

Pension coefficient data on the non-state pension website. Soglasie Foundation: soglasie-npf.ru

Unlike other social norms, the assignment of a pension is not affected by whether the service was interrupted during the person’s activity. It can be interrupted, and the total duration is established by summing up all periods of confirmed work activity.

If a person worked under contracts as an employee, the length of service is calculated according to the work book. If a citizen conducted individual activities under an individual entrepreneur’s certificate, they are calculated according to tax reports regularly submitted to the Federal Tax Service, and certificates for the single tax and contributions to the Pension Fund. Additional confirmation is provided by contractual documentation for the provision of services and performance of work.

How is the length of service calculated and confirmed for calculating a pension?

In our country, the calculation of insurance experience is divided into two time intervals:

• before the implementation of the system of universal personalized accounting in 1996 in accordance with Federal Law No. 27;
• after the introduction of Federal Law No. 27.

In the first interval, in addition to individual accounting data (if any), you can confirm the presence of insurance periods that are included in the insurance period with certificates from employers, government agencies or municipalities. In the second interval, such confirmation is made only according to information from the system of universal personalized accounting.

If documents on a citizen’s work related to the first time interval are irretrievably lost due to a natural disaster and cannot be restored, then the periods of his work on the territory of the Russian Federation can be established based on the testimony of two or more witnesses. It is permissible to use this method of confirming the insurance period even if documents are lost through no fault of the employee due to careless storage, destruction due to malicious intent, etc.

Basis for calculations

When calculating length of service, it should be taken into account that there are 3 types:

1. Insurance.
2. Civil services.
3. Special (when working in hazardous industries, in special circumstances, in an unfavorable environment, including radiation).

The latter option is the basis for receiving a preferential pension.

To determine the length of service, entries in the work book are used. When summing up the period, the following are taken into account:

• periods of labor activity when contributions to the Pension Fund were paid (hired work in an organization, individual entrepreneur);
• work on a collective farm, farming under a separate agreement with an individual;
• independently organized work (lawyers, notaries).

The terms of any other periods are calculated in a similar way, starting from the first and ending with the last working day.

If there were no contributions to the budget, the period will not be counted. This time is often:

• education;
• registration of parental leave for children over one and a half years;
• vacation period due to the need to care for a fifth child;
• illness without registration of social assistance;
• registration of leaves taken from the employer without pay;
• unemployed people who have not formalized their status without assigning benefits;
• serving a sentence in a prison camp, being in custody;
• absence from work due to the accompaniment of a spouse working in a foreign country or at a place of duty (for military personnel).

There are exceptions to the rule for calculating pension experience when the period is taken into account even in the absence of contributions to the Pension Fund. This information will be useful for determining the length of service for calculating pensions for women.

Such situations include the period:

• service in the armed forces;
• work in the police or drug departments;
• fire service;
• work in the penal system;
• being on maternity leave (paternity leave for up to one and a half years) for the first 4 children;
• caring for a person with disability group 1, a disabled child, a person who has reached the age of 80.
• staying with your spouse in an area where employment is impossible;
• living with a spouse while the latter is performing public service duties while abroad;
• registered temporary disability with the accrual of benefits;
• registration of unemployed status with registration at the labor exchange, with the accrual of benefits or performing public labor with payment from the employment center;
• cases where a person has served his sentence and has been rehabilitated.

Taking into account the above exceptions is possible only if the person’s biography included other periods of employment and payment of contributions to the Pension Fund.

If you immigrated to Russia

The length of service for calculating a pension under Federal Law No. 400 includes those periods of time when work or other activities with the payment of insurance payments to the Pension Fund were carried out on the territory of the Russian Federation. What if you moved to Russia from a CIS country and received Russian citizenship? Is length of service earned outside the Russian Federation taken into account when calculating a Russian pension?

Yes, it is taken into account, but partially. In 1992, all CIS countries (except Azerbaijan) concluded a special agreement on this issue among themselves. It determined that if citizens move to other countries within the CIS, then when calculating their pension in the new country of residence, their entire work experience is taken into account (note, it is “work experience”, after all, the agreement is from 1992!), acquired in the territory of the former USSR until March 13, 1992

The immigrant’s work experience outside the Russian Federation after the start of the pension reform, i.e. since 2002, is added to the Russian insurance record upon confirmation of payment of insurance payments to the Pension Fund of the previous country of residence.

Special cases

When a person worked simultaneously for two employers or performed part-time or part-time duties, it is possible to choose the most profitable employment case for work experience.

Sometimes the work is seasonal. This also applies to navigation cases. Their duration reaches 4-6 months. If the employee was employed during the entire season or navigation period, the length of service includes the entire calendar year.

When working in a collective farm, to record the year of work, it is enough that at least 1 day of employment is recorded in the work book.

When summing up length of service, the same period cannot be taken into account. It is impossible to re-take into account the length of service spent abroad and the period used when assigning pension payments for length of service or disability.

When applying for a pension, the work record is of paramount importance. If a document is lost, they contact the archive, financial institutions, companies that have ever employed the person. Any certified certificate confirming a person’s work at the enterprise is suitable. If it is not possible to obtain the original documents confirming employment, the work experience is confirmed by witnesses.

Is continuous service required to accrue pension benefits?

There is no legal definition of this type of experience in current legislation. But, having analyzed a number of current regulatory documents, we can conclude that continuous length of service for calculating a pension is the duration of the last work at one enterprise without a break or at a number of enterprises, provided that the breaks in work did not exceed the established periods (usually from one to three months per month). depending on the reason for interruption of work).

According to current legislation, continuity of service is not taken into account when determining the amount of the insurance pension. Since 01/01/2007, according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the amount of benefits paid for temporary disability also does not depend on this indicator. Now it is calculated only according to the insurance period.

What to do if you have no official experience?

Sometimes it happens that it is not possible to find an official job with suitable conditions throughout the age suitable for performing duties. Or there are simply not enough years to comply with the standards established at the legislative level. In this case, the old-age insurance pension is waived. But every citizen is still entitled to social benefits. But the amounts are calculated only starting from the age of 65.

To receive benefits you need to collect the following documents:

• Archival certificates and extracts that can confirm at least minimal employment.
• Labor agreements.
• Employment history.

Minimum experience

In addition to age requirements, a minimum total duration of work has been established for retirement. In accordance with current legislation, the minimum service requirement will gradually increase until it reaches 15 years. Citizens whose work period is much shorter than required will be able to receive social benefits 5 years after their retirement. The relationship between the duration of work and the number of pension points:

"Northern" experience

“Northern” length of service for calculating a pension is an indicator provided for those who live in the Far North and in areas equivalent to it, as well as for those who previously worked in such an area. Citizens of these categories can retire early (insurance). This right is given to women from the age of 50 and men from the age of 55, who have worked, respectively, from 15 or 20 calendar years in the Far North or in areas that are equivalent to it, if they have compulsory insurance experience for pension calculations from 20 and 25 years, respectively.

Women with two or more children, who have worked respectively from 12 or 17 calendar years in the Far North or in areas equivalent to it, can also go on an insurance pension at 50 years of age if they have a mandatory insurance period of 20 years or more years.

In addition, men and women who have worked in the Far North for 25 and 20 years respectively in fishing, reindeer herding or hunting can receive a pension at the age of 50 and 45.

Types of pension experience

Labor activity in Russia is accompanied by certain guarantees. Citizens of the country participate in compulsory pension insurance (OPI). After reaching a certain age or upon the occurrence of an insured event, the state begins to pay benefits to the insured individual . Its size depends on the duration of work activity. Kinds:

• State. Accrued to individuals when working in budgetary institutions and in direct service to the country.
• Insurance (labor). Work or any other activity accompanied by regular contributions to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (PFR).
• Special. When it is accumulated, the citizen has the opportunity to receive pension payments ahead of schedule.
• Continuous. The time period when an individual worked in one or more organizations without interruption is taken into account.
• General. It includes all periods of work activity, regardless of the type of work performed and the duration of breaks.

Difference between work and insurance experience

The activities of a citizen are taken into account by the state in different ways. Work experience is the sum of the periods of work of a citizen in all places, periods of other activities useful to society. The reform of the pension calculation system has led to the emergence of new concepts that affect the amount of payments. The amount of the pension benefit consists of the insured amount and payments fixed by law. The length of service for a pension includes exclusively time worked, and the insurance period includes military service, maternity leave and other periods considered in the legislation.

Special insurance

This term refers to the time during which the employee carried out activities in conditions classified as difficult or unfavorable. Special insurance experience is obtained in industries hazardous to health, during contract and military service. It is awarded to medical and pedagogical workers operating in rural regions. In addition to officially worked working time, the special insurance includes:

• periods of temporary disability;
• annual vacations paid by the employer;
• additional vacation periods.

Periods of downtime and the time when an employee was suspended from activities or not allowed to participate in them are not included in the special insurance period. Special working conditions include underground, mining, difficult and dangerous work associated with increased emotional stress. Special insurance experience gives an individual the opportunity to retire early.

After reaching 45 years of age, an employee can apply to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation with a work book, archival certificates, salary statements and other documents confirming the fact of working under special conditions. When calculating, full years and months (30 days) are taken into account. If two periods of work activity coincide, to calculate the amount of the benefit, the Pension Fund uses the one for which the coefficient is higher.

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The situation in Ukraine

How is the length of service calculated for calculating a pension in a neighboring country? Ukraine has carried out its pension system for citizens through approximately the same stages as the Russian Federation. Thus, from 1991 to 2004, it was regulated by the Pension Law, which provided for the calculation of pensions based on length of service and average monthly earnings for a certain period of time. Just like in Russian legislation before the start of pension reform in 2002, Ukrainian pension legislation combined periods of work of a citizen and some periods of forced absence from work into the concept of “total length of service”.

Since 2004, the Law on Pension Insurance came into force, which is an analogue of Federal Law No. 173 and operates in terms of length of service and insurance contributions. In subsequent years, there were several attempts in Ukraine to continue the pension reform, but they did not lead to concrete changes in legislation, except for the gradual increase in the retirement age for women to 60 years.

Certain changes aimed at tightening the rules for providing pensions to selected categories of workers are taking place this year. From April 1, when old-age pensions are granted on preferential terms for work in harmful and difficult conditions, the retirement age for women begins to gradually increase from 45 to 50 years. At the same time, the total length of service required to grant preferential pensions to both men and women will gradually increase by 5 years.

Pensions for long service will now also be granted after a greater total length of service, and for some categories of workers - after a greater required length of service. This applies, in particular, to workers of locomotive crews, workers of geological exploration parties, logging and timber workers, sailors, teachers and doctors, artists, etc.