Abstract
The transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy, from communism to democracy, and from unitary to a federal state had extreme consequences for the overall welfare of Russian population: including health services, social protection, and pension system. The Plan for Social and Economic Policy Development proposed initiatives to restructure the funding and provision of housing, education, health care and pension. In this paper, we will focus on the last theme. As a matter of fact, reforms of the pension system occur in many countries –either developed or emerging-, that makes it a so critical issue and a so interesting theme. Moreover, even if the economic transition is plenty of amazing learning and discovers, it should be nice to see this transition from people perspective and their every day's life issues. There are nowadays 40 millions of pensioners in Russia. And while the life minimum is evaluated at 960 roubles (38€), the average pension is only 1915 roubles (56€). A great challenge is thereby to increase the pension benefit.
The purpose of this essay is to analyse changes in the provision of social services, in particularly the pension system, and evaluate its sustainability. So after a quick general overview of welfare in Russia, the essay describes firstly the former Soviet Union pension system, and secondly how the first reforms took place. Then the essay focuses on the new pension system: reviewing its characteristics, one can find some benefits but also some risks to overcome. As a conclusion, the essay reviews some policy options for reducing these risks and improving the system.
