Early retirement based on length of service in 2021: who is eligible for the benefit, reasons

The required length of service for early retirement is a set of calendar periods, including work activity, on the basis of which Russian citizens can become pensioners without waiting for retirement age.

In accordance with the latest amendments, for women this value is 37 years, and for men - 42. Interestingly, the legal documents stipulate not only the number of years that will have to be worked to obtain “preferential” rights, but also the procedure for calculating them. For example, women with 37 years of experience or more and men with 42 years of experience or more will be able to retire 2 years earlier than the generally established retirement age, but not earlier than 55 years for women and 60 years for men.

What length of service is required for early retirement?

Those who have worked for most of their lives without neglecting labor laws, and have made insurance contributions for them, will be able to retire in advance for a well-deserved rest. For these citizens, the Government has developed a new benefit - to stop working 2 years earlier.

In addition to length of service, other requirements will also apply. Early retirees must be at least 55, and pensioners - 60. Let us remind you that our country is currently undergoing a pension restructuring, according to which the age for retirement is increasing. By 2028, men and women can count on a contributory pension at ages 65 and 60 respectively.

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Taking into account this smooth transition and the minimum age requirements (55/60 years - women/men), early retirement will also be carried out gradually. We look at this in more detail in the early retirement table.

For women

For representatives of the fairer sex, the value of 37 years of work experience is established. With this amount, a woman aged at least 55 can retire earlier than usual.

For men

Men over the age of 60 with 43 years of service can also count on early old-age payments.

Having the required length of service does not give you the right to retire as soon as you are exhausted. The working life in this case is reduced by 2 years.

Specific filters apply to work experience. It is not calculated like regular insurance.

Features of PR 2021

Since the beginning of the PR, significant amendments have been made to the legislation regarding the procedure and grounds for retirement. This led to a number of changes for the citizens themselves, among which the most stringent are the increase in the retirement age:

1. Standard: 65 years old for men, 60 years old for women.
2. For state and municipal employees, 65 years old for men, 63 years old for women.
3. The age limit among the disabled population is 70 years for men, 65 for women.

The minimum insurance period has also been increased from 10 to 15 years for healthcare workers, education workers, cultural workers, as well as workers in the Far North.

In this regard, a number of benefits have been introduced by law to allow people to retire earlier than expected. But even here there are some nuances and subtleties.

What is included in the preferential period

definitely in this length of service :

• labor activity in Russia, when insurance contributions were paid to the Pension Fund;
• funded holidays;
• sick leave when short-term disability benefits were paid.

The benefit period differs from the insurance period in that it will not always include the following periods of time:

• being registered with the Employment Center;
• emergency service;
• maternity leave up to 1.5 years (but not more than 6 years in a lifetime);
• care for disabled people and elderly people over 80.

These indicators will be taken into account only if before or immediately after this period the person immediately got a job and contributions were made to the Pension Fund.

The grace period will be significantly less due to the lack of long periods. Therefore, early retirement is only possible for those who officially started working at a young age.

What is not included in the length of service for early retirement?

Thus, recent amendments to labor legislation have expanded the list of periods that are not included in the insurance period for early retirement.
Now they have added military service, periods of study at universities and other institutions, as well as child care time. In addition, those periods when the employer did not transfer additional contributions will not be included in the insurance period. Even if the employee performed his duties and basic contributions were transferred.

The same rule applies to periods of work when the employer did not transfer basic insurance premiums for the employee.

Also excluded from the calculation of length of service are periods of transferring unemployment benefits, caring for a disabled person of group 1, an elderly person, a disabled child, illegal detention, etc.

Table of early retirement by length of service by year of birth

This table presents gradual early retirement taking into account the minimum age for this.

To summarize, for women born 1964-1965. and men born 1959-1960 There is no provision for retirement 2 years earlier, because they will be less than 55/60.

How to find out whether a Russian who has reached retirement age can count on a pension?

Information about the state of a pension account is available to every citizen registered in the Pension Fund system. Every citizen is now required to have a SNILS (including newborns; they receive an individual pension account number almost simultaneously with their birth certificate).

Important! Previously, the usual practice of pension funds was to send letters about the status of a personal account. However, since 2013, this rule has been about, as they were popularly called, sent only upon request if necessary.

To find out whether you should count on retirement in 2021, you can:

• Personally contact the nearest branch of the pension fund. You should provide a SNILS card, passport and work book (however, perhaps the last item will not be needed soon, since the Russian Federation will gradually switch to electronic work books). The result will be issued on paper and contain information about when the citizen can retire;
• Through the website of the state or non-state pension fund in which your account is opened - the report will be sent by mail or shown on the screen;
• Through government services - the report will also be sent by mail or shown on the screen.

An able-bodied citizen who is still far from retirement can find out all the information about the current state of his account, length of service, individual investment complex and other parameters. And it’s better to take care of your upcoming retirement in advance.

Procedure for assigning early pension

Having extensive work experience is not a prerequisite for retirement. Those who have not completed that many years of service will retire according to standard requirements.

To apply for a pension, you should contact the Pension Fund to find out what documents are required. The day the pension is assigned is considered the day the application is submitted with a set of papers. You can submit the application only when you already have the right to a pension, not earlier. To find out what documents are needed, you should apply six months in advance.

As a rule, the standard package of documents will be considered to be the provision of:

1. passports;
2. work book;
3. military ID, if any;
4. certificates of average earnings for 60 consecutive months before 2002;
5. SZV-STAZH or certificates of insurance premiums;
6. other certificates, depending on the category of citizens.

Let's take a closer look at what SZV-STAZH is. This is an annual reporting form for employers, which displays the same insurance payments. The report must be submitted by March 1 of the current year for the previous calendar year. If an employee decides to apply for pension payments, then he writes a free-form application at work about submitting a SZV-STAZH report for him. The employer is obliged to submit it within three days.

In this form, the employer indicates the type of information “Pension assignment”, the current year, fills in the employee’s data, periods of work, vacation, sick leave, etc. The last period line is filled in with the applicant’s date of birth, if he submits documents in advance, or with the planned date of submission of documents. Afterwards, the employer submits a report to the Pension Fund. If more than 25 people are employed, the reports are submitted electronically, if less, they can be submitted in paper form.

An application for payments can be submitted in person to the Pension Fund or sent by letter. The date shown on the postmark will be considered the date of acceptance.

If any documents are missing, the citizen is given 3 months to submit the missing papers. Then the date of receipt of the application is equal to the date of application. If you do not meet these deadlines, you will have to resubmit your documents.

Within ten days, the Pension Fund considers the application, checks all documents and issues a decision on the appointment. If the documents are not in order or the length of service is not enough, then within five days the Pension Fund sends a refusal with explanations.

Grounds and conditions for early retirement

According to regulations, an individual can retire early if he has the following grounds:

• He has reached the age when he can retire early with benefits.
• If an employee has worked for a certain number of years in harmful and life-threatening working conditions (earned a pension for harmfulness).
• Additional pension insurance contributions were calculated and paid on the employee’s salary during professional activities.

The law establishes that early retirement requires 42 and 37 years of service for an individual. At the same time, early retirement is a right, not a requirement.

If a person wants and meets all the conditions established by law, he can submit an application to the Pension Fund or wait until he reaches age and apply for an old-age pension on generally accepted grounds.

However, it is important to remember that in order to be able to receive a pension early, the periods included in the length of service will not be taken into account when retiring on a general basis.

Calculation of pension payments

The size of the pension is calculated in the same way as the old-age pension, with the exception of taking into account the increasing coefficient.

So, the amount of early payments based on length of service will be equal to the product of the individual pension coefficient and the value of the pension point at the time of registration; the amount of the fixed payment of the insurance pension is added to this value.

Calculation formula

Amount of early payment = IPC*SPK+FV.

In [2019], SPK = 98.86, PV = 6044.48 rubles.

The fixed payment indicator changes annually depending on variations in prices for meeting basic needs. Simultaneous payments for length of service are also provided if the citizen meets this criterion.

Questions about calculating the insurance period

Collection of certificates of experience

– There’s still a year until retirement, I applied for a model at the Pension Fund. They told me to collect certificates of work from 1991 to 1999; there was something I didn’t like in the work book. I worked in cooperatives then, they went bankrupt, there is no data from the archives. Why doesn’t the Pension Fund collect certificates itself?

Artyom Vasiliev

The pensioner himself must collect the documents; the Pension Fund will not do this for him. There is an option that some of the documents are transferred by the employer - but this only applies to those who are still working (and the documents relate only to the last place of work).

As for the layout, this is a preliminary calculation of the insurance period and determination of the right to retire. If Pension Fund employees are not sure of the authenticity of the seals and entries in the work book (and they usually find fault with almost everyone), you need to confirm the right to this experience with a certificate

.

The certificate must be requested at the enterprise itself or in the archive (if it has closed). Transferring files to the archive is the responsibility of the company’s management, but during liquidation, especially in the 90s, this was often neglected.

But there is a way out: to confirm the length of service, the testimony of 2 witnesses - former colleagues in this work - is sufficient. There is no need to take them with you to the Pension Fund; it will be enough to take written explanations from them.

Experience caring for an elderly person

– I don’t work anywhere, I decided to arrange care for 2 neighbors (they are over 80). Tell me, will length of service and pension points be counted in single or double amounts?

Artyom Vasiliev

You can care for several elderly people at once, for which each of them will receive 1,200 rubles towards their pension. But for the caregiver, a year of insurance experience and 1.8 pension points per year are awarded.

This number does not change

- for both one elderly person and three, a year of experience and 1.8 points are required.

Unemployment is also experience

- Hello. In six months I’ll apply for a pension, but I’m six months short of 11 years of experience. Please tell me, if in 2003-2004 I was registered as unemployed at the employment center for 9 months, will this somehow help?

Artyom Vasiliev

The current pension legislation (Law 400-FZ) came into force only in 2015, but when calculating length of service, it allows you to include in it those periods that were included in the length of service at that time.

In 2003-2004, Law 173-FZ was in force, which allowed periods of receiving unemployment benefits to be included in the insurance period.

, participation in paid work, relocation through the employment center to another region.

In other words, you will have the right to include in your length of service only the time when you received unemployment benefits.

Collecting job information

– I started applying for a pension, in our pension fund they find fault with the seals in the work book, they forced me to collect certificates of experience from 3 places of work! Is this even legal?

Artyom Vasiliev

Unfortunately, it is actually legal. The pension fund will not request work data since 2002, when the personalized accounting system was in effect. Plus, until 2004, employers submitted reports using the SZV-K form, which reflected their length of service until 2002. But not all the data is there (many employers have already been liquidated by this time).

Therefore, the Pension Fund has to request confirmation of length of service through certificates

. These are periods of work for employers that by 2003 were liquidated or did not file appropriate reports.

Moving from another country

– She lived and worked in Kazakhstan until 1994, then moved to Russia. When they retire, will I also have to collect certificates of experience in the Republic of Kazakhstan? Will our pension fund accept them?

Artyom Vasiliev

Between Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as with other CIS countries, an agreement has been concluded on bilateral recognition of experience

. That is, the Russian Pension Fund can count work in Kazakhstan as length of service, and vice versa. The agreement has been in effect since 1992, so you won’t lose your experience.

As for confirmation, the Russian Pension Fund will accept an official certificate from Kazakhstan, but it will most likely have to be translated into Russian.

Studying in the Far North

– I studied and worked in the Northern regions for 10 years. They were supposed to subtract 3 years and 4 months from the retirement age, but they only subtracted 2 years and 8 months. They said studying is not included in the experience! It's true:

Artyom Vasiliev

Indeed, working in the Far North for more than 7 and a half years reduces the retirement age by 4 months for each year of such experience. However, 400-FZ clearly states: “...Citizens who have worked

in the regions of the Far North...".

That is, only work is taken into account - neither study nor military service is included in this length of service.

Service in the Far North

– During the USSR, he served in the Army in the Arctic. Will these years serve as my northern experience?

Artyom Vasiliev

As we wrote above, the law allows you to reduce the retirement age by 4 months for each year of work in the Far North. That is, not “experience” or “period of stay”, but work

. Any other periods will not be included in the “northern” length of service, and the retirement age will not be reduced.

Study at the institute and experience

– Why am I not included in my studies at the institute in 1985-1989? into experience? They say there was no work, but after the first course there was industrial practice, it is recorded in the work book.

Artyom Vasiliev

Current legislation does not include study at all in the length of service (since there are no insurance contributions during this period), but in this case allows the use of legislation in force in 1985-1989.

According to the rules in force at that time, studying at the institute was included in the length of service for granting a pension in one case: if it was preceded by work.

The case of practicing while studying is quite complicated. You need to look at the following data:

• whether there was official registration for work during the internship;
• whether there was a salary and whether contributions were paid from it;
• whether the practice is noted in the work book.

This is a rather special case; as a rule, the Pension Fund has to prove its case in court

.

And further. Including studies in the length of service does not always result in an increase in pension; this is usually resorted to when there are not enough years to reach the minimum insurance period.

What does the new law say about providing benefits?

The measure in question to support women during the implementation of pension innovations was introduced into the previous law on pensions. Changes to it were made by law dated October 3, 2018 No. 350-FZ as part of changes to the entire pension legislation as part of the so-called reform. This legal act provides for the following conditions when a woman can receive security on preferential terms:

1. A woman’s work experience is 37 years or more (we are not talking about work activity, but specifically about insurance experience, which includes not only periods of work, but also time spent performing other socially useful activities).
2. The onset of age 55 years.
3. Availability of an individual pension coefficient of 30 or more (you can view it in your personal account on the official website of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation or request information directly from this body).

Important! Even if all the mentioned conditions are met, a woman will be able to go on a well-deserved rest no earlier than 2 years before she could qualify for a pension on a general basis.

⚖ Legal basis

The functioning of these concepts is regulated through several federal regulations:

• Federal Law No. 400-FZ “On Insurance Pensions”. In accordance with Article 8, the general retirement age for women and men is established on the territory of the Russian Federation;
• Federal Law “On Insurance Pensions” (but already Chapter 6). On the basis of this Chapter, a list of persons who have the right to early retirement is determined upon reaching a certain length of work in their specialty or due to reaching a special retirement age;
• Law “On Employment in the Russian Federation” (Article 32). On the basis of this article of this law, the issue of retirement of persons with pre-retirement status is regulated if they were fired from their job and cannot find a new one (provided that they have two years left until retirement);
• Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 665 of July 16, 2014, in accordance with which lists of jobs, professions and positions, as well as specialties and various institutions were approved, taking into account which early retirement may be assigned;
• To date, the Ministry of Economic Development has developed draft amendments to the above article of the law “On Employment”, in accordance with which the conditions for early retirement may be changed. However, to date, these amendments to the law have not been adopted and are still being considered as part of a special plan to support the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.

Social pension

The state cannot leave without any support those who, by old age, have not acquired the required amount of experience and IPK. Every person comes to an age when he is no longer able to work and earn points. There are also categories of people who, for health reasons or other reasons, cannot work on an equal basis with everyone else and accumulate the necessary experience and points. Therefore, Federal Law No. 166 establishes a guarantee for such persons in the form of a social pension (Article 11).

Social old-age pension is assigned:

representatives of small peoples of the North at 55 and 50 years old, men and women, respectively;

non-working elderly people aged 70 and 65 years (men and women respectively) who have not earned the right to receive an old-age insurance pension.

At the same time, previously, the social pension was assigned to men at 65, and to women at 60. Social pensions were also affected by pension reform and a gradual increase in this age is also in effect.

IMPORTANT: the benefit also applies to social benefits. For older people who did not have time to accumulate length of service or IPC and should have started receiving payments in 2021 or 2020 , a pension is assigned six months before reaching the established age.

Who can take early retirement in old age?

Citizens can obtain the right to retire early:

1. Women with many children (raising 3 or more children). They can start receiving a pension by three years earlier, those who have given birth to four – by four years, and those who have five or more children – by ten years.
2. Women with two or more children who have worked for twelve years in the Far North and seventeen in harsh conditions. Workers in the same regions, with an output of 15 years (for women) and 20 (for men).
3. Citizens who have disabled children under their guardianship. The retirement age is reduced by one year for every year and a half of guardianship. The maximum may be less than 5 years. But you also need to have insurance experience; 15 years is enough for women, 20 years for men.
4. Citizens with existing deviations in physical development (dwarfs, midgets). For them, the retirement age has been reduced by 15 years.

Any citizen has every right to documents from employers confirming preferential length of service. If they refuse to issue the necessary certificates, you can obtain confirmation through the court.

It is also necessary to make sure that the employer regularly contributes insurance contributions to the fund.