The State Duma intends to make an additional pension payment for scientists up to 20%

Scientists want to receive up to a 20% pension supplement. As Izvestia found out, such a bill will be submitted to the State Duma on November 28 by Sergei Mironov, head of the Fair Russia faction, and Yana Lantratova, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Civil Society Development, Public and Religious Associations.

"In the current version of the law on Insurance Pensions, a fixed payment to the old-age insurance pension and disability insurance pension is established without taking into account the presence of an academic degree. There is no mechanism for recognizing scientific qualifications at the retirement stage, which leads to the leveling of the contribution of persons with an academic degree, reduces the predictability of the level of material security after completion of work and does not create sufficient incentives to maintain employment in the scientific and educational fields," says the explanatory note, which is available to Izvestia.

The draft law proposes to establish an increase in the fixed payment to the insurance pension by 10% for candidates of sciences and by 20% for doctors of sciences.

"Making such a decision will improve the financial situation of retired scientists and create the prerequisites for retaining staff in science and higher education," Mironov explained.

He noted that according to the current legislation, the existence of an academic degree is not taken into account in any way when assigning a pension.

"This is absolutely wrong and unfair. The state should not forget that it takes years of work to obtain a PhD, and even more so a doctorate. These are specialists with a capital letter, they are deeply versed in their field, have extensive knowledge, and higher education institutions and all Russian science rely on them," the parliamentarian noted.

According to Lantratova, today the prestige of scientific activity is declining, the outflow of personnel is growing, while the country is in dire need of highly qualified specialists.

"According to the bill, if there are several academic degrees, the largest amount of pension allowance will be applied. The recalculation should be done automatically, without submitting applications, as soon as the Pension Fund receives information confirming the existence of an academic degree. This approach is a tribute to work, knowledge and service to the country," explained Yana Lantratova.

She believes that the proposed measures will be a powerful incentive for young people to stay in the profession.

It's hard: the gap between the pensions of the employed and the unemployed has reached a minimum since 2021.

When will the payments be equal and what does this mean for the economy?

On November 19, Deputy Labor Minister Andrei Pudov announced that insurance pensions in Russia will increase by 7.6% from the beginning of 2026. The increase will affect 38 million people. The average payout amount will increase by almost 2 thousand rubles and will amount to more than 27 thousand rubles. The next indexation will take place on April 1 and will affect recipients of social pensions — their payments will increase by 6.8%.

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