Retirement Age May Be Increased For Belarusians

The draft document is already ready.

Belarusian officials are discussing the possibility of raising the retirement age for two years. This is reported by the sources of ‘Belsat’. The decision has not yet been made, but the draft document is ready. We have discussed with an expert whether this measure will be effective and how reasonable it is.

Sources say that the gradual increase will begin in 2026. And if during the previous increase in the retirement age, half a year was added each year, now it is going to be raised by a year at once: plus one in 2026 and another plus one in 2027. Thus, in two years, women are planned to retire at 60, and men - at 65.

We remind you that Aliaksandr Lukashenka first announced about the need to increase the retirement age in 2016. As he said then, the measure is caused by ‘the need to maintain the living standards of the population in the long term’. Until then, men retired in Belarus at 60, while women - at 55.

A phased increase in the retirement age began on 1 January 2017, under Lukashenka's decree. Since then - until December 2022 - it was increased by six months, until the retirement age reached 63 years for men and 58 years for women. Similarly, there was an increase in the age of the right to preferential labour pensions and pensions for length of service.

The majority of Belarusians did not approve of the innovation even then. According to the Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies (IISEPS), which conducted a survey after the signing of the decree to raise the retirement age, only 19% of respondents supported the increase in the retirement age, while 70% of respondents had a negative attitude to such a measure.

Experts, in their turn, already then said that this measure would be insufficient. The reason is that the number of employees who pay contributions to pension funds in the country is becoming less, while pensioners are becoming more numerous.

Back in 2018, the share of the population of older working age in Belarus was 25%, and by 2050, according to forecasts, it will reach 35%. It turns out that the authorities have not solved the problem of the Federal Social Security Fund deficit by increasing the retirement age, but pushed it forward.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka once spoke about the hole in the budget of the Federal Social Security Fund, which requires annual injections - subventions from the state budget. The Ministry of Labour and other relevant departments failed to solve this problem.

After 2022, officials also discussed a further increase in the retirement age. The IMF also advised to raise it even more.

How Long Do Belarusians Live In Retirement?

After the pandemic, the average life expectancy of Belarusians at birth, according to the UN, has significantly decreased. This decline was especially noticeable for men, who ‘lost’ almost 2.5 years of life from 2019 to 2021 (from 69.7 to 67.3 years). Judging by the same statistics, men in Belarus live on average 10.4 years less than women.

Such an abnormally high gender gap (more than 10 years) in 2021, by the way, was recorded only in four countries of the world. All of them are in the post-Soviet space. These are Armenia (10.8 years of difference - 77.4 for women and 66.6 for men); Russia (10.6 years of difference - 74.8 for women, 64.2 for men); Belarus (10.4 years of difference - 77.7 for women, 67.3 for men); Ukraine (10.2 years of difference - 76.7 for women, 66.5 for men).

Let's calculate further: average life expectancy in Belarus is 72.4 years: 67.3 for men and 77.7 for women. It turns out that the average time of survival after retirement for men today is 4.3 years, and for women - 19.7. The difference between ‘male’ and ‘female’ survival time is as much as 15.4 years. On average, a Belarusian woman can now live on pension almost four times longer than a Belarusian. Obviously, we are talking about retirement pensions, not for length of service.

If the retirement age is raised by another two years, then on average, men will be lucky to live a little more than two years in retirement, while women - almost 18.

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