Committee for Labor, Employment and Social Protection: on voluntary insurance additionally
In order to develop a multi-level pension system in the Republic of Belarus and increase the incomes of the population of retirement age, on September 27, 2021, the Head of State signed Decree No. 367 "On voluntary insurance of an additional funded pension" (which comes into force on October 1, 2022).
The main principle of additional funded pension insurance is the voluntary participation of working citizens and their employers in a new funded pension program, which will allow the formation of additional pension savings upon reaching the generally established retirement age, and consequently, increase the future labor pension.
The formation of additional pension savings will be carried out through the transfer of additional insurance contributions and income from their investment to the republican unitary insurance enterprise "Stravita".
The insurance contribution rate for working citizens is set at 1 to 10 percent (at their discretion), and for employers, depending on the employee's choice, from 1 to 3 percent.
For example, if an employee chooses 1% of monthly deductions to the funded pension system, the employer will also be obliged to pay 1% of this employee's accrued salary to RUP "Stravita" monthly; 2% - employee, 2% - employer; 3% - employee, 3% - employer; 4% - employee, 3% - employer, and so on, up to 10% of employee deductions and 3% of employer deductions (the maximum amount of deductions is 13%, the minimum is 2%). At the same time, in order to prevent an increase in employer costs associated with the need to pay additional insurance contributions to RUP "Stravita", the Decree provides for a reduction in the mandatory insurance contribution for pension insurance, established by the Law on contributions to the budget of the state non-budgetary social protection fund of the population of the Republic of Belarus (28%), by the amount of the insurance contribution paid for the insurance of the additional
pension savings (from 1% to 3%).
Thus, the state acts as a guarantor of the fulfillment of obligations for pension provision of labor pensions and their increase, and in case of the employee choosing a program of additional funded pension insurance, it will undertake obligations to preserve the revenues of the social protection fund budget to ensure the payment of labor pensions within the solidarity pension system.
For participants of the new pension program, other benefits and financial incentives are also provided, such as: income tax benefit (receiving a social tax deduction by the employee for the amount of insurance contributions paid from the employee's funds), the possibility of inheriting pension savings, a guarantee of their preservation, the absence of an obligation to pay insurance contributions to the fund budget, and insurance contributions for compulsory insurance against industrial accidents and occupational diseases on the amount of deductions made for additional funded pension.
To exercise the right to participate in the voluntary insurance system of additional funded pension, the employee must contact the insurance company RUP "Stravita" and, after concluding an agreement on additional funded pension insurance with it, inform the employer of their choice.
Head of the Department of Professional Pension Insurance of the Vitebsk Regional Department of the Social Protection Fund of the Population I.V. Efremova