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Labor Ministry against increasing retirement age — minister

"We are neither going to raise the retirement age nor even suggest it," Minister of Labor and Social Security Maxim Topilin said

© Artyom Geodakyan/TASS

NOVO-OGAREVO, February 4. /TASS/. The Labor Ministry does not agree with the position of the Ministry of Finance on the retirement age hike, Minister of Labor and Social Security Maxim Topilin said on Wednesday.

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"We are neither going to raise the retirement age nor even suggest it," the minister said. "The question is what we expect from the retirement age," Topilin added. He mentioned other nations where the retirement age is rising along with the growing age of life. "There are no savings, expenses merely do not escalate," the minister said.

Russia has an allowance for receipts of the Pension Fund because nearly 20 million of working age individuals do not currently pay insurance contributions. "The Labor Ministry believes the difference between the retirement age and life expectancy is still small," the minister said. "The dialogue with the public, public opinion polls, calculations and discussions are needed before making the decision to raise the retirement age," Topilin added.

Awareness-building activities are required to incentivize Russians to make insurance contributions, he said.

Meanwhile, the Labor Ministry does not exclude the possibility of freezing the funded part of pensions for 2016 if the budget situation is complicated, Maxim Topilin said. Everything will depend on the financial situation, Topilin added. If there is such an opportunity then there will be no sense to freeze the funded part of pensions, the minister said.

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