The Russian Pensioners Standard of Living and Its Dynamics with the Introduction of Basic Pension Income

The Russian Pensioners Standard of Living and Its Dynamics with the Introduction of Basic Pension Income


Bobkov V.N.

Dr. Sci. (Econ.), Prof., Head of the Scientific Project, Laboratory for Research on the Basic Pension Income of the Institute of Economics of RAS, Moscow, Russia. bobkovvn@mail.ru

Odintsova Ye.V.

Cand. Sci. (Econ.), Senior Researcher, Laboratory for Research on the Basic Pension Income of the Institute of Economics of RAS, Moscow, Russia. odin_ev@mail.ru

ID of the Article:


The reported study was funded by Russian Science Foundation grant 25- 18- 00228 at the Institute of Economics of RAS.

Rubric: Social policies. Social structure

For citation:

Bobkov V.N., Odintsova Ye.V. The Russian Pensioners Standard of Living and Its Dynamics with the Introduction of Basic Pension Income. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2025. No 11. P. 110-122



Abstract

Expectations of poverty in retirement prevail among working citizens in all generational groups and reflect Russian realities. The main source of income for most pensioners is a pension, which does not provide them with economic sustainability, despite the forced continuation of employment by some of them. The information basis of the study was made up by data obtained during the secondary processing of the results of a number of sociological studies, as well as data from Rosstat, including microdata from Comprehensive monitoring of living conditions (CMLC), and the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation for 2022. The article provides a comparative assessment of the standard of living of pensioners under the current Russian pension system and in the case of the introduction of a basic pension income set no less than at the federal minimum subsistence level for a pensioner, while maintaining and subsequently increasing the insurance part of the state pension. It is shown that this can lead to a significant reduction in poverty, an increase in the standard of living (purchasing power) of pensioners.


Keywords
life in retirement; positive expectations; negative expectations; pensioners; pension recipients; pension system; poverty; standard of living; economic sustainability; basic pension income

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Content No 11, 2025