The main provisions of Decree No. 402 “On Social Support” came into force on January 1, 2025.
Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus dated October 29, 2024, No. 402 is adopted to strengthen social support for certain categories of citizens.
The decree provides for the cancellation of the pension amount limit for working pensioners. This means that labor pensions will be paid without applying the limit on the individual earnings coefficient above 1.3, as provided in the first part of Article 83 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus dated April 17, 1992, No. 1596-XII "On Pension Provision", which will increase the efficiency of using persons of retirement age in the labor market.
The decree also simplifies the procedure for collecting documents on earnings for pension calculation and optimizes the deadlines for submitting applications for pension appointment.
From January 1, 2025, the pension calculation (first part of Article 57 of the Law) will be made from the adjusted actual earnings for the last 30 consecutive years of work experience, but not more than the actual work experience. In cases where employers do not have documents on actual earnings for periods of work of citizens before January 1, 2003 (except in cases where documents were lost due to natural disasters, accidents, catastrophes, or other emergencies) and there are no archival data on this earnings, the time of such work at the request of citizens will not be included in the period from which the earnings for pension calculation is made, provided that each month of the excluded work period is replaced by months of experience that sequentially preceded the 30-year work experience period, the earnings for which are taken into account for pension calculation. This method of determining earnings does not apply if the actual work experience for which there is information about earnings is 30 years or less. The decree establishes a 30-year period for presenting salary for calculating the individual coefficient from 01.01.2025. No further annual increase of the 30-year period is provided. This innovation is introduced to gradually transition to confirming earnings based only on the personalized accounting data of the Social Protection Fund of the Republic of Belarus, which has been formed since 2003.
The deadline for submitting applications for pension appointment is changing from January 1, 2025. Applications for pension appointment can be submitted both one month before it and within one month after reaching retirement age. At the same time, pensions for age, length of service, or social pensions will be appointed from the day the right to it arises, if the application for this pension was made no later than one month after the right to it arose. We draw attention to the fact that if the application for a pension is submitted later than one month from the day of reaching retirement age, the pension will be appointed from the day of application, determined in accordance with the second part of Article 80 of the Law.
Additional support is introduced for families with children with disabilities. In the event of the death of one of the parents, an additional increase in the pension is established for children with disabilities. The amount of such an increase will depend on the degree of health loss of the child and will range from 80 to 110 percent of the subsistence budget. To recalculate pensions for children with disabilities, parents of children with disabilities, and persons with disabilities from childhood of groups 1 and 2 who have lost their breadwinner, it will be necessary to contact the pension appointment department of the labor, employment, and social protection management at the place of registration with supporting documents for pension recalculation.
Additional guarantees for pension provision are also provided for fathers of children with disabilities who have raised children with disabilities for at least 8 years until they reach adulthood. Fathers of children with disabilities will have the right to an age pension with a reduction of the established retirement age by 5 years – at 58 years and with at least 25 years of work experience, including at least 5 years of work with mandatory insurance contributions to the budget of the state off-budget social protection fund of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter – insurance experience). The father will need to confirm the fact of raising a child with a disability for at least 8 years until the child reaches adulthood. The pension for the father of a child with a disability will be appointed in cases where the mother of the child with a disability (a person with a disability from childhood) has not acquired the right to an age pension in accordance with the first part of Article 20 of the Law or has not used the right to such a pension and has waived this right in favor of the father or has not used this right due to death.
Women who have given birth to four children and raised them until the age of 8 will be entitled to a labor pension upon reaching the established retirement age, provided they have at least 20 years of work experience, including at least 5 years of insurance experience. Previously, the requirement for at least 5 years of insurance experience applied to women with five or more children.
The categories of citizens receiving pensions by mail are expanding. Additional categories of pensioners are introduced who will be able to receive pension payments by mail, including home delivery. Innovations will affect citizens with health issues (persons with limited mobility, disabled persons of group 3), as well as those living with a disabled person of group 1 or caring for a child with a disability. This opportunity will also be provided to all pensioners who express a desire to receive their pension through a postal service at their own expense.
The recalculation of labor pensions appointed before January 1, 2025, taking into account periods without earnings data and, if possible, replacing such periods with salary certificates preceding the 30-year work experience period, can apply for recalculation of the pension at the pension appointment department at the place of registration. For this, it will be necessary to write an application indicating the grounds for the recalculation of the pension, as well as attach certificates confirming the presence of earnings in the previous periods. The recalculation will be made from the first day of the month following the month in which the pensioner applies with the application and documents (Article 81 of the Law).
The main provisions of the Decree came into force on January 1, 2025.
L. HUTSKO,
head of the pension appointment department
of the labor,
employment and social protection
of the Orsha district executive committee.