"Belarusian Authorities Implement Pension Reform, Which They Didn't Discuss With People"

Increasing the retirement age will dramatically worsen the lives of older people.

Increasing the retirement age will create additional tension in the labor market, and the living standards of older people will sharply worsen. Uladzimir Malei, a Brest lawyer and a representative of the REP trade union, is convinced of this. He said to Radio Racyja that the pension reform was not widely discussed.

– Belarusian authorities implement a pension reform, which, unfortunately, wasn't discussed anywhere. It is approved only by orders of the ruler of Belarus. Initially, the compulsory length of pensionable service was determined as 5 - 10 years. In 2018, it has been set as 16.5 years.

Today, pensioners have barely enough money to purchase the necessary food and pay for public utilities. Most people at the age of 60 are not able to look for work due to health issues and a tense situation in the labor market, – Malei believes.