Catch-Up Evolution
The Social Coverage of Old People in Russia
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Russia’s pensioners are considered the big losers of the past 20 years. Pensions did in fact largely collapse during the 1990s and failed to keep up with the wage increase of the past ten years. Nonetheless, the poverty for pensioners is on average less than for the overall population. Not only do many pensioners continue to work. The welfare system is also tailored to old people. They receive compensation payments for the privileges that were abolished in 2005, and the pensions were significantly raised in 2008. However, there are grave shortcomings in the old age care and health systems. Female pensioners – especially those in the countryside – together with single mothers and their children, run the greatest danger of not receiving adequate medical care.
(Osteuropa 5/2010, pp. 205–222)