The size of a pension in Estonia has recently been of interest to many Russians. A healthy curiosity appears when there is information about the plans of the Russian government to raise the retirement age. It’s no secret that the pensions themselves are incredibly low now. What is the situation in the neighboring republics, which separated during the collapse of the Soviet Union? In this article we will tell you how things are in Estonia.
Pension system
Pension in Estonia consists of three parts. Firstly, the part of the payment provided by the state consists of 20 percent of the tax. It is paid by the working population, as well as 13 percent, which the state pays for medical care.
Secondly, there is the concept of a mandatory fund. 2 percent of the personal income of citizens and 4 percent of the state are directed to it. Such a contribution may be voluntary for Estonians born before 1983. But for all other citizens, the contribution is exclusively mandatory. It begins to be debited from the very first salary immediately after coming of age.
Thirdly, a pension in Estonia is also formed at the expense of an additional pension fund. Each citizen has the opportunity to determine it independently. Moreover, both the size of the contribution itself and the frequency of payments made, receipt of payment leave, and premature termination of the contract may change.
Similar payments begin to be granted to an Estonian citizen when he is 55 years old. With this pension tax is no longer necessary. But only on condition that the contributions do not exceed the amount of six thousand euros or 15 percent of income, not including costs. If an open-ended contract is concluded between a citizen and an insurer, and the funds have been in the account for more than five years, then such a pension is not taxed at all.
In this case, usually when drawing up a contract with specific terms or when there is a need to withdraw the entire amount, a tax of ten percent is withheld.
Thus, today the pension in Estonia is formed from the main part, the seniority of the citizen, as well as insurance for those who have retired since 1999.
Types of benefits for pensioners
There are several types of pensions in this country.
- State. It is accrued by age (in this case, seniority is required), disability (in this case, without taking into account seniority), if you lose the opportunity to earn income (such a pension is granted to disabled citizens), early pension (it is paid when working in hazardous work, which is not allows you to work until you reach the official retirement age), the so-called support pension (it is accrued five years after the onset of age, if the citizen does not receive any other type of accrual).
- Professional pension. For this pension, the employer makes contributions, both forcibly and optionally.
- Voluntary Each future recipient of retirement benefits can voluntarily make contributions if he cares about his well-being.
Retirement age
Unlike Russia, men now retire in Estonia at 63 years old. For the stronger sex, this is a constant.
But in the case of women, everything is much more complicated. The retirement in Estonia for them directly depends on the year of birth. Those who were born in 1951 and earlier have the right to retire from the age of 62. If a woman was born from 1951 to 1953, she retires at 62 and a half years, and for those born after 1953, the retirement age is exactly the same as that of men. For them, at age 63, a pension comes in Estonia. They can change the age of their retirement on a well-deserved rest.
Premature Payments
In Estonia, there is such a thing as a premature pension. Any citizen is allowed to go to it three years before he reaches the appropriate number of years to leave for well-deserved rest. The main condition that must be observed for this is to work out one and a half decades.
The main difference between this type of pension is the loss of 0.4 percent of the total pension for each month taken ahead of schedule. That is, in just three years, a person risks losing 14.4 percent. They will be deducted for life from the total amount. If a citizen has retired prematurely, it is no longer possible to refuse it.
Another feature of the pension system in Estonia is deferred pension. Its size will grow by 0.9 percent every month. This will happen until a person decides to finish his labor activity.
At the same time, authorities have officially announced that the maximum retirement age in Estonia will continue to increase.
How much do older Estonians get?
In order to understand what kind of pension is in Estonia, you need to know what it is made of. These are the three main components.
Firstly, the base part, which currently stands at 162 euros (about 11, 800 rubles). Secondly, this is the so-called share of experience, which is taken for work until the end of 1998. Thirdly, it is an insurance share. The experience, as well as the presence of maternity leave, the time for receiving full-time education above average, completing military service, temporary disability for a good reason, directly affects this payment.
Such a payment in Estonia is individually calculated for each citizen. By the way, in addition to the above factors, the payment itself will also depend on how much tax has been paid by a citizen since 1999.
The government of this republic recalculates pensions every spring. At the same time, the existing pension is multiplied by a certain value, a fifth of which directly depends on price increases over the past year. The rest (4/5) is affected by the increase in social tax. After this recalculation, from April 1, the pension is paid at a new rate.
Average standard of living for older Estonians
In order to visualize the size of the pension in Estonia, we calculate how much the average citizen gets on average. The average pension here is 391 euros (about 28.5 thousand rubles). This is the average pension in Estonia. The final amount is greatly affected by pre-retirement income, seniority and participation in government programs. Now you know how much pension is in Estonia.
For example, if your experience was 15 years, then you will receive 223 euros (about 16 thousand rubles), if you worked twice as much, then 301 euros (about 22 thousand rubles), if you worked 40 years, you will receive 354 euros (almost 26 thousand rubles), and if more than 44 years old, then your monthly pension will be 375 euros (about 27.5 thousand rubles).
Moreover, the annual increase in pensions is about five percent.
The minimum pension in Estonia is called national. She relies on any citizen of the country, even if he does not have any seniority. Currently, the minimum pension in Estonia is 158 euros (this is around 11.5 thousand rubles).
Calculation Schemes
There are several schemes in Estonia for calculating a pension. There is a retirement pension. In this case, the payment to the citizen is made from the funds that are available on his account, or from the capital of the current able-bodied population. This scheme is not used much because it is not very relevant due to the fact that the population is constantly decreasing and there is a negative increase.
Another option is a pension with an agreed contribution. In this case, it is intended to assign a specific amount that a future pensioner systematically contributes to the fund (for example, a percentage of a citizen’s income), but such a scheme has practically no guarantees, being directly dependent on the duration of the scheme.
Finally, there is a scheme with an assigned payout size. It is based on a predetermined amount upon retirement. At the same time, the contributions directly depend on the result you are counting on, as well as the size of your salary during the pre-retirement period and length of service.
As a result, the payment of a pension largely depends on the savings that you were able to make to achieve retirement age.
The situation for the citizens of Russia
For Russian citizens, the pension in Estonia is 312 euros (almost 23 thousand rubles).
The government often notes that it is not easy in the country to provide pensioners. This is due to the fact that many citizens, and above all, able-bodied youth, tend to go to more economically developed European countries in order to receive higher salaries there. The outflow of young people in recent years is so great that now almost half of all citizens in the country are pensioners.
In this regard, it is expected that in the coming years the conditions for Russian pensioners may change. In particular, the probability of raising the retirement age for Russian citizens to 74 years is being discussed. At the same time, the minimum length of service for applying for a pension will reach 44 years. True, the pension itself will be much higher - 396 euros (almost 29 thousand rubles).
Pension transfer from Russia to Estonia
An agreement was signed between Russia and Estonia on the mutual support of pensioners, so that such a transfer is possible. It is worth noting that in both countries the size of the pension depends on your length of service, which you individually received in each of the states.
This means that if a person moves to Estonia from Russia at a time when he is already retired, then the country in which he saved up pension savings pays for him.
Thus, Estonian citizens in Russia are losing their national part, but can claim local benefits.
It is worth noting that Estonia does not have a survivor's pension, as well as the fact that when funds are credited to a bank account, there is a conversion from one currency to another. Because of this, part of the money will be lost.
date of receiving
In Estonia, a pension is paid on the 20th of every second month in special institutions.
Moreover, all pensions, without exception, are subject to income tax. There are no exceptions for citizens who receive payments abroad.
