Structure of the Pension System in Uzbekistan

The pension system of Uzbekistan is governed by the law “On the state pension coverage of citizens” adopted on September 3, 1993. There are the following types of the state pension specified in this document: 

• age pension;
• disability pension;
• survivor’s pension.

Who is eligible to claim the age pension:

• men — when they reach 60 years old and have at least 25 years of employment history;
• women — when they reach 55 years old and have at least 20 years of employment history.

If the employment history is insufficient, the age pension shall depend on the age and be proportional to the employment history.

The individuals who do not have any employment history are entitled to the age pension: at the age of 65 for men, and 60 for women.

Yes, that’s it. In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the age of retirement for men is 63, for women it is 58. Last year, the republic discussed the rise in pension age: for women to 58, to men to 62. Currently, this issue is included into the draft Concept of reforms in the system of state pension coverage. It says about the need of rising the pension age up to the worldwide average level.

According to the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as of October 1, 2020 the number of pensioners was 3,785,520. This is more than 10 per cent of the population of the republic.

Out of them, 2 million 838 thousand 276 people receive age pensions.

Since September 1, 2020, the following minimum pensions were set in the republic:

• basic amount of pension is 262 thousand 470 Uzbek sum per month (25 dollars)
• minimum disability pension– 513 thousand 350 Uzbek sum per month (49 dollars)
• people disabled from childhood – 513 thousand 350 Uzbek sum per month;
• the minimum amount of a benefit to old and disabled citizens without the required employment history – 315 thousand 30 Uzbek sum per month (30 dollars)

Based on the data provided by the Non-budgetary pension fund of the ministry of finance, we can conclude that pension in Uzbekistan was rising from 2012 to 2019.

However, if we recalculate pension in dollars (even at the official rate of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan), it will be clear that in 2017 pensions in Uzbekistan dropped more than twice. By 2019, the authorities failed to return pensions to their previous rates.

By the way, the average pension varies from region to region. The highest pensions are in the capital of Uzbekistan – just over 1 million Uzbek sum or almost 100 dollars.

Yes, it is. It is governed by the law “On accumulative pension of citizens” as of December 2, 2004. 

The accumulative part of the pension is accumulated in the Extra-budgetary Pension Fund of Uzbekistan, which is the subordinate entity of the Ministry of Finance. Private companies do not deal with pension savings in the republic.

The average pension is about 700-800 thousand Uzbek sum (66-76 dollars). Of course, it is very difficult to live on this amount for a whole month.

The pensioners who live only on pension cannot afford almost anything. So, 200 thousand Uzbek sum (19 dollars) are required to pay for public utilities.

In December 2020, the Federation of Consumer Rights Protection Societies of Uzbekistan calculated the consumer basket based on statistical data, global experience and results of studies in the form of social surveys of people. As a result, the amount was nearly 2 million 157 thousand Uzbek sum, which is three times more than the average pension.

It is worth mentioning that in Uzbekistan the pension is not pegged to the subsistence line or the minimum subsistence basket because such notions are not legally referred to in the law of the republic.

In January 2020, Dzhamshid Kuchkarov, deputy prime minister for financial and economic issues and poverty reduction, once explained why it was so. According to him, the officially declared subsistence line will lead to the conflict of laws.

“If we declare this value (subsistence line – editor’s note), it will lead to the constitutional abuse because pensions and benefits may not be under the subsistence line. We will have to increase [benefits and pensions], but we cannot do this now,” Kuchkarov said then.

The presidential decree regarding the State Programme for 2021 says that from June 1, 2021:

• when a pension is awarded, the employment history for the period until 2005, when there was no electronic database of wages and employment history, will be based on the records available in the work record card without any proving documents;
• no excess payments shall be charged on pensions and benefits fixed or recalculated for the period of more than three years;
• the employees will have the right to pay voluntarily a social tax every month for the future pension coverage of their unemployed spouses out of their own income;
• pensions and benefits shall be granted and paid either at a place of permanent registration or at a place of temporary stay, at the citizen’s option;
• citizens shall apply for pensions and benefits in non-cash form when applying for plastic cards in banks or via mobile apps without the need to go to the branches of the Extra-budgetary Pension Fund of the Ministry of Finance;

the obligation to visit the Pension Fund every six months is cancelled for the recipients of pension in non-cash form and no field monitoring is required. Now a citizen may be deprived of the right to a pension based on electronic data submitted by relevant authorities.