The Moscow bonus to the pension shall be earned by 10 years of living in the city

A residence qualification is practically fixed for the pensioners of the capital. Come next year, only the pensioners who have been registered in the capital for more than 10 years will be entitled to the Moscow bonus to the pension. Currently the bonus is payable to non-working pensioners with Moscow registration, whose pension is lower than 12 thousand roubles. The difference with this amount is compensated from the municipal budget. “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” informs that the medium sum of the bonus is of 4000 roubles. There are 2,9 million pensioners in the city, and the bonus is payable to over 2,1 million.

The novation will affect everyone, who will apply for the regional social bonus since 2013. From that moment on, the person will have to prove that he was registered in Moscow for a total of over 10 years in order to get the bonus. No limitations will be imposed on those, who already receives the bonus or who applies for it before 2012.

The authorities will only compensate the difference between the pension and the living wage to all other non-working pensioners, who live in the capital. The living wage amount is annually fixed by the Moscow City Duma, and in 2012 it is of 7137 roubles. The bonus will also be paid to the residents of the territories, which were recently incorporated into Moscow.

The authorities stress that the pensioners, who are registered residents of Moscow, but fail the residence qualification, will keep the other benefits. Such benefits are: the Muscovite’s social card, free passage in the municipal public transportation, residence and utilities payment benefits.

The residence qualification for pensioners has already been discussed in Moscow. The supporters of the measure said that, assisted by relatives in Moscow, pensioners from other regions allegedly attempt to obtain registration in the capital in order to receive the bonus to the pension, often without actually living in the capital.

Mikhail Antontsev, Chairman of the Committee on Social Policy and Labour Relations of the Moscow City Duma, believes that the novation will not infringe upon the interests of the Muscovites. M.Antontsev told AiF: “The way it is in every region, the budget compensates to all pensioners, who reside in its territory, the difference between the amount of the pension and the living wage. In Moscow, since we fixed an additional standard for the pensioners at 12 thousand roubles, we started attracting the pensioners, who do not live here, but obtain the registration and receive the bonus”.

He believes that “most pensioners will not feel the change”. The Chairman of the Committee said: “No one will review the payments, which were appointed earlier”.

Senator Valery Riazansky, Chairman of the Union of the Pensioners of Russia (UPR), was ambiguous about the decision of the Moscow authorities. On one hand, the decision of the government of the capital is not against the law, since the city pays the difference between the regional standard and the pensions from its own budget. “That is why the city is entitled to fix the rules for the bonus payment,” – says V.Riazansky.

“On the other hand, such division of the pensioners into categories is probably not so nice from the ethical point of view”. The head of the UPR says that he has information from the social services of the city of Moscow on alleged abuses of the pension bonuses. “But in the real life, when children move their elderly parents to Moscow, they do not intend to receive the pension, but to provide their parents with adequate care,” – reasons V.Riazansky. He is of the opinion that such citizens will suffer because of the “abusers”.

6177 newcomers to the capital were registered with the social security bodies of Moscow as permanent residents in the first half of 2012, and 1821 persons were removed from the register. The bonus to reach 12 thousand roubles was assigned to 5716 newcomer pensioners.

<…>

Ekaterina Shestakova, Lawyer at the Law Firm "YUST", notes that clauses 2 and 5 of Article 12.1 of the Federal Law “On state social aid” do not link the receipt of regional social payments with the so-called “residence qualification”. E.Shestakova says: “We believe that the implementation of such “residence qualification” for a regional bonus does not comply with the provisions of the Constitution and the Federal Law”. However, the lawyer doubts that the court would uphold such point of view, since another provision of the same Social Aid Law endows the units of the Russian Federation with the right to independently fix the conditions of the additional social payments from the regions’ own funds. The expert says that a “more liberal” construction of that provision will enable the court to dismiss the complaints.

Source of the publication: see here.