Russian pensioners abroad have made pensions more difficult

Pensioners from Russia living outside the country due to changes in the rules for receiving payments faced difficulties in obtaining pensions under Russian law and foreign benefits.

Since 2015, the payment to “new” retirees (the pension was granted from 1 in January), as well as to those who retired earlier, but only issued it this year, in accordance with a government resolution N1386, is made only in rubles and only to accounts opened in Russian banks. The previous procedure assumed that the Pension Fund of Russia transferred money once a quarter to foreign accounts.

As pensioners living in Germany told Kommersant, the main source of funds for them is local social benefits, and the Russian pension is considered additional income, and the benefit is reduced by this amount. A pensioner living in Germany needs to officially confirm the size of the Russian pension to the social department.

According to the previous rules, it was enough to provide documents to the social services on the transfer from the Pension Fund of Russia to an account in a foreign bank. New rules often require not only personal presence at a Russian bank to open an account, but also quarterly trips to Russia to obtain an extract confirming receipt of a Russian pension.

You can avoid trips, but for this you also need to draw up a power of attorney, which also requires, though much smaller, but costs and time-consuming, said lawyers interviewed by the publication.

In addition, the conversion rate of pensions transferred from Russia has become less profitable. Previously, conversion took place at the rate of the Central Bank and once a quarter, now, when the pensioner is forced to use a Russian account, the bank calculates conversion for each operation at its internal rate, which is less profitable than the rate of the Central Bank.

Previously "Forum" reportedthat this year the number of Russians wishing to emigrate to the United States reached a historic record. In the current year, the US Foreign Ministry accepted 265 086 applications from Russia to receive green cards entitling them to permanent residence in the United States, with a quota of four thousand such documents allocated to Russia.