Russia has at least 20 million freelancers, or people without an official place of work. The pension reform will seriously hit this category of the population, according to lawyer Vladimir Postanyuk.
“A quarter of able-bodied Russians are not working officially. However, this doesn’t mean they are not contributing to the country; they don’t take anything and spend their own money on food, commute, and so on,” the expert noted.
He expanded that freelancers could only rely on social retirement pension which is around RUR8.5K ($132) per month and partially funded by regional budgets. Before the pension reform, Russian citizens used to be entitled to this beggarly pension starting from ages 60 and 65. Now they have to wait until 65 and 70. This means men will have to work until 70, which is “nothing to be happy about,” said Vladimir Postanyuk.
He pointed out that freelancers can choose to pay a share of their income to the Pension Fund or make no contribution. If they don’t pay anything they will only be able to get a social pension after retirement, Svobodnaya Pressa reports.