Today, 1 October, many countries will celebrate the International Day of Older Persons. In Kyrgyzstan, festive events - an exhibition - the fair of products of grandmothers-masterminds - will also be held in Kyrgyzstan. But older people are looking for pension increases, which annually occur in early October. The Kyrgyz Social Fund told ‘Akchabar’ what innovations await pensioners.

From today, the minimum pension in Kyrgyzstan will be 6,900 KGS. Also, the insurance part of the pension will be increased by 18%, but not less than by 1,000 KGS.

More than 785,000 pensioners live in Kyrgyzstan. The age of retirement on a general basis for men is 63 years and for women - 58 years.  The retirement age on disability pension is 18 years if there is a required length of service. The age of children receiving survivor pensions is from 1 month, including up to 23 years if they are studying in higher education.

The largest number of pensioners live in Osh region -149,418 people. Almost 146,000 people live in Jalal-Abad oblast, and the capital Bishkek - more than 115,000 people live in Bishkek - rounds off the top three leaders in the number of pension recipients.

If we look at the dynamics of pensioners, the number of recipients has been steadily increasing since 2019. If 5 years ago 670,435 people received pensions in Kyrgyzstan, today their number is more than 785,000 people.

Since the beginning of the year, 30,477 new pensioners have appeared in the country. Most of them - almost 6,000 each - live in Osh and Jalal-Abad oblasts. In Bishkek and Chui oblast, there are about 5,000 new pension recipients. The least number of new pension recipients live in the city of Osh and Talas oblast - a little more than a thousand.

In 2020-2021, the average increase in pensions was 107%, while pensions in the country have increased significantly in recent years. Thus, in 2022 the pension amount increased by 33% (on average by 1,988 KGS), at the same time in 2023 the Social Fund increased the insurance part of pensions up to 30,000 KGS, by 38%, or on average by 1,700 KGS, without the republican budget involvement.

The insurance part of the pensions of Group III disabled persons is also now calculated in full (previously only by 50%). In addition, the basic part of the pension for orphans who have lost their parents has been increased to 3,000 KGS, and the basic pension for round orphans has been increased to 6,000 KGS.

Pensioners permanently residing in the border territories of Batken oblast with special status were established monthly compensatory payments to the pension of 2,000 KGS.

The minimum disability pension for soldiers and sailors of compulsory service is set at 4,800 KGS from 1 January 2021 and 6,300 KGS from 1 January 2023.

Monthly compensatory payments of pensions to participants of liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and other nuclear facilities of civil or military nature are also set at 1,000 KGS in 2023.

To create fair conditions for the state pension social insurance participants, amendments have been made to legislative acts in the field of state social insurance, providing for the assignment of the basic part of the pension in the full amount. Previously, the basic part of the pension was assigned proportionally to the length of service, which led to the total pension decrease. Given that the basic part of the pension is a state's support in connection with the loss of earning capacity, it is no longer linked to the length of service and is now assigned in the full amount.

The procedures for assignment and computation of the pension first insurance part (for length of service up to 1996) have also been simplified. The full amount of the insurance part of pensions for disabled persons of Group III has been established.

For survivor's pensions, the age limit entitling to pension without documents on education was raised from 16 to 18 years, the right to pension not only for full-time but also for part-time education, as well as periods of study in foreign educational institutions until the age of 23 years. Previously, children under 16 years of age and students of higher education institutions of the republic, and only full-time students, were entitled to a survivor's pension.

Also, the allowances established earlier given the district coefficient when a pensioner moves to a settlement where the district coefficient is not established have been preserved. For example, if a person receiving a pension for work in the highlands has already lived and worked for the required number of years in the highlands, the district coefficient to the supplement is retained even if the pensioner moves to another locality.

At the same time, the Social Fund noted that in today's conditions of globalisation and free movement, including elderly citizens around the world, there are cases of pensions not being claimed on time for a period exceeding the three years established by law. Therefore, the three-year eligibility period for unclaimed pensions has been increased to five years.

In addition, previously there were no length of service requirements, allowing retirement with one year of service, which makes the amount of pension at the time of appointment insignificant and causes dissatisfaction. In contrast to us, most countries in the world, including the CIS, have introduced a mandatory length of service requirement of 10 to 25 years. The gradual introduction of the minimum service length from 5 to 20 years will allow people to get used to the new rules, besides, it is another step towards the legalisation of employment of citizens, towards increasing the responsibility of able-bodied people for their future, for the formation of pension rights, towards solving the problems of low pensions.

According to preliminary data, in 2024, the Pension Fund's expenditures will amount to 99.3 billion KGS or 47 billion more than in 2020.