Expert: It took 25 years to understand that the Pension Fund is a robbery

About the fund

NPF "First Russian Pension Fund" has been working to create savings for citizens in Russia since 2004.

In 2020, the Bank of Russia decided to revoke the fund’s license. The reason for this was violations of the clauses of the Federal Law “On Non-State Pension Funds” relating to the management of depositors’ money and the regulations on the dissemination of information.

From the moment the bankruptcy procedure is opened, all powers of the bankrupt organization are exercised by the state. The interests of the former “First Russian PF” are represented by an appointed person – Yulia Olegovna Naumova.

It should be clarified that state guarantees regarding the safety of depositors’ funds also apply to non-state pension funds that are not included in the system of guaranteeing the rights of insured persons. This means that when a company is liquidated, money from savings is transferred to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, its insufficiency is compensated at the expense of the Bank of Russia, and, if necessary, through the entire property of the fund.

Information Good afternoon, readers! Today I come to you with a painful topic. Many of you are of considerable interest in those non-state companies that until recently carried out successful activities, and today their property has been auctioned off.

Can members of a bankrupt company get their money back? Using the example of the NPF First Russian Pension Fund, whose official website no longer exists, I will tell you how it works.

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Terms and service

How to enter and formalize an agreement with the fund. Application form

Since the beginning of the bankruptcy procedure, the First Russian Pension Fund has been prohibited from entering into agreements with citizens and increasing debts. Any application forms that you come across on the Internet are no longer valid.

How to transfer pension

If the investor wrote an application to transfer his pension to another NPF before the date of revocation of the license of the current one, then it is considered invalid. Now the Pension Fund of Russia is responsible for the obligations of the bankrupt organization. Therefore, a former client of the First Russian Pension Fund needs to contact the nearest Pension Fund department.

Today, the First Russian Pension Fund, due to the revocation of its license, does not operate in accordance with its charter, and any schemes related to the transfer of pensions from another structure to it are fraudulent.

How to find out your savings

Bankruptcy includes a number of procedures that are primarily aimed at protecting the rights and legitimate interests of participants in the structure.

Informing depositors about the reorganization of First Russian was carried out through the media, the Internet, as well as personal notifications within 30 days from the start date of liquidation. Thus, the first information about the closure of the company was published in the Kommersant newspaper at the end of 2020.

Preliminary information and the opportunity to consult the hotline of the First Russian Pension Fund allowed citizens to learn about their savings and independently decide their future fate - transfer money to another NPF or Pension Fund.

All depositors wishing to make claims and claims against a fund undergoing bankruptcy proceedings were required to report this in writing to the Deposit Insurance Agency. They were given 2 months to do this from the date of the first announcement of the closure of the NPF “First Russian” in the newspaper.

All received applications were taken into account in a special register and closed as the property of the NPF was sold in strict order:

• payments to those citizens who have already begun to receive a lifetime pension;
• payments to those who have already retired and were supposed to receive it for a certain time - a fixed-term non-state pension;
• requirements of individuals who are still saving;
• claims of legal entities that transferred money to NPFs for their employees;
• claims of other creditors.

In addition, information about all movements regarding the liquidation process of NPF “First Russian”, savings and their compensation is publicly available on the official website of the Deposit Insurance Agency.

How to terminate an agreement with a non-state pension fund

The participant of the First Russian PF did not need to take any special actions after the license was revoked.

All operations that needed to be done in accordance with the fund’s obligations under the compulsory insurance agreements and the transfer of savings to the Pension Fund as the new insurer of the insured person were carried out by the Bank of Russia.

Now the formation of pensions for former clients of First Russian is entrusted to the Pension Fund. At the same time, investors still have the right to change their pension fund to another non-state one; to do this, they need to visit the Pension Fund and write a corresponding application.

Under non-state pension provision agreements, all obligations were distributed within six months from the start of the liquidation of the First Russian Pension Fund by the manager - the state corporation - in the following form:

• payment of redemption amounts or their transfer to other non-state pension funds or transfer to pay insurance premiums;
• transfer of responsibilities for the payment of lifelong non-state pensions and reserves to another non-state pension fund.

Personal income tax refund

Under non-state pension agreements with non-state pension funds, you can receive a tax deduction. However, a taxpayer can submit a return for deduction only within three years after the end of the year in which contributions were paid. Considering that NPF “First Russian” has been liquidated since September 2020, the tax service will refuse to receive a deduction this year.

Moreover, if as a result of the process of closing the NPF “First Russian Pension Fund”, cash savings were transferred to another NPF, then in 2020 the participant can count on a tax refund for the previous period. To do this, you need to submit a declaration and a package of documents to the tax service.

Early retirement

Despite the reform of the pension system in our country, Russians retain the right to receive savings ahead of schedule. These funds can be transferred by them in the form of a monthly lump sum payment for a certain period or a funded pension.

An application for payment to former investors of the NPF “First Russian Pension Fund” must be sent to the local branch of the Pension Fund or to the NPF to which his savings were transferred.

Payment of fees

Today, there are several options for making contributions to form your savings, regardless of who received the obligations of the liquidated company - the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation or another NPF.

For both individuals and legal entities, the most common methods are monthly salary deduction and bank transfer. You can find out directly from the Pension Fund or Non-State Pension Fund about the possibility of depositing funds through terminals or special services.

Don't need a pension fund?

State Duma deputy and leader of Just Russia Sergei Mironov proposed liquidating the Russian Pension Fund (PFR). According to him, violations in the work of the fund, which were revealed by the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, indicate the low quality of the work of the Pension Fund.

“The Accounts Chamber’s report on the work of the Pension Fund and the state of its databases is horrifying. The worst thing is that the most socially vulnerable people suffer from these technical errors and chaos: pensioners and benefit recipients,” the parliamentarian explained.

Mironov believes that pensions for Russians can be paid directly from the budget, and the fund’s costs for staff, offices and IT infrastructure are not justified.

Why pay crazy amounts of money for the Pension Fund database if it works with such monstrous errors that a person can be deprived of half his pension? It’s easier to use the ready-made infrastructure and database of the same Federal Tax Service. Sergei Mironov

State Duma deputy

Earlier, the Accounts Chamber (AC) of the Russian Federation discovered errors in the personalized accounting system of the Russian Pension Fund (PFR), which led to a violation of the pension rights of Russians. In particular, in 2017–2019, additional payments to pensions were not accrued in more than half of the cases.

But after the audit, pensioners were paid an additional 2.2 million rubles. The main accounting problem was the opening of two or more accounts for the same person, as well as the assignment of one SNILS to several citizens. The payment could be assigned based on the data on insurance premiums of only one account, whereas at the time of applying for a pension, the citizen had two or more accounts. Because of this, the size of the pension payment decreased.

The joint venture indicated that the Ministry of Labor and the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation should check the assigned and recalculated pensions and pay additional money to citizens.

Photo: Moscow 24/Mikhail Sipko

Advantages and disadvantages

Participants of any NPF note the pros and cons of these structures. Undoubtedly, such an investment of money allows the participant to take care of his future, accumulating savings for his approaching old age. Moreover, the higher the fund’s profitability, the more opportunities investors have.

However, if the fund turns out to be unreliable and goes bankrupt, as in the case of the First Russian Non-State Pension Fund, the bankruptcy procedure for the enterprise begins. And this is a significant drawback of such funds: if there are not enough assets or they are slowly being sold, you will not be able to get all your money.

How to apply online?

Every citizen can issue a pension certificate using the official website of the Pension Fund of Russia using a personal account.

To complete the certificate, you will need to adhere to the following algorithm of actions:

• Go to the official website of the Pension Fund (active link);
• Go to the “Electronic Services” section;
• Select a pre-registration appointment at your local Pension Fund branch;
• Select the “Order document/certificate” tab;
• Enter your personal data into the form that opens;
• Click “Next” and enter the applicant’s place of residence.

Once the application form is completed, Pension Fund employees process the application and check the provided data. If the data complies with all standards, the applicant will be called and set an exact time to appear at the Pension Fund to receive the document.

To receive a pension certificate, you will need to confirm your identity with a passport.

Is it worth transferring your pension here?

Due to the liquidation of the fund, initiated in connection with the violation of guarantees to fund investors under the law of the Russian Federation, in 2020 it is impossible to transfer savings to the NPF “First Russian Pension Fund”. Over the past years of the company's operation, numerous fraudulent schemes involving investors' money have been recorded.

Thus, it is known that its founders withdrew the participants’ savings through the purchase of mortgage participation certificates (MCCs) of Baltika Bank, which is the most dangerous instrument for the participants’ savings. Considering the reason for the revocation of the First Russian license, it was not worth transferring the pension here during the period the company was carrying out its activities.

What documents are needed to obtain?

To become the full owner of this document, you will need to prepare and submit the following list of documents to the Pension Fund:

• Completed application form (the form is issued directly to the Pension Fund);
• A 3x4 photo that will be pasted into the certificate;
• Labor book;
• SNILS of the applicant;
• Marriage certificate;
• Children's birth certificate;
• Certificate of employment (for official employment);
• Document from the place of study (if you already have education - diploma, certificate, etc.);
• An extract from a banking institution with account details to which monthly payments will be received.

Pension Fund employees may request other documents, and the applicant undertakes to provide them within the established time frame.

As an example, if the Pension Fund does not have data on wages received for a certain period of time, then additional extracts from the place of work may be requested.

To clarify the final list of documentation that will be required to obtain a pension certificate, you must contact the local branch of the Pension Fund.