RBC: Russia’s Social Fund ended 2023 with a deficit of 593.4 billion rubles
The deficit of the Social Fund of Russia (SFR) in 2023 amounted to 593.4 billion rubles. About this with reference to materials on the execution of the fund’s budget, the authenticity of which was confirmed by another source, writes RBC.
The record deficit of the Pension Fund of Russia (PFR), the successor of which was the SFR (formed on January 1, 2023 through the merger of the PFR with the Social Insurance Fund), reached 543.7 billion rubles. This result was observed in 2015.
The Ministry of Labor explained the situation by technical processes. In 2022, the Pension Fund observed a maximum surplus of 1.1 trillion rubles, but it was achieved through the early transfer of the federal part of the transfer. And in 2023, funding for expenses was reduced by the amount that remained from last year. Thus, the share of transfers in income was 30.3 percent, although for the Pension Fund it never fell below 37.7 percent.
Expenditures of the SFR in 2023 amounted to 13.86 trillion rubles, which is 2.3 percent higher than stated in the budget law. In particular, spending on pensions increased by 1.2 percent, of which 9.05 trillion were insurance pensions.
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In the area of “Protection of family and childhood,” expenses increased by 6.7 percent, to two trillion rubles, and for maternity capital they fell by 17 percent, to 455.5 billion. However, the latest figures were 19 percent higher than in 2022.
Professor at the Financial University under the Government, Alexander Safonov, called the SFR deficit an artificial definition. According to him, when filling the fund, the state simply transfers money from one pocket to another; such a process does not create problems.
It was previously reported that, according to forecasts, the number of pensioners in 2023 and 2024 will increase by 1.7 million people, to 43.47, which will be the maximum since 2019, when pension reform began.
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