City Hall will cut the November pensions of about 200,000 retirees who illegally collected bonus payments by concealing the fact that they were still working.
The city will halt the bonus payments to the working pensioners and deduct the money that they have illegally received, Kommersant reported Friday.
The extra payments consist of money paid on top of federal pensions and are popularly referred to as "Luzhkov bonuses," after Mayor Yury Luzhkov.
The deductions started on Nov. 1, said Oksana Turayeva, a senior official with City Hall's welfare department, Izvestia reported last week.
The working pensioners were discovered when the Pension Fund recalculated the pensions of all Russians, the newspapers said.
According to a City Hall order that came into force in November 2007, Moscow pensioners who do not work are entitled to receive extra money from City Hall in order to increase their pensions up to 6,800 rubles ($235) a month, the minimum wage in Moscow.
The average sum of a Luzhkov bonus is 2,900 rubles, Kommersant said.
City Hall will save at least 7 billion rubles ($242.7 million) in 12 months by stopping bonus payments to the 200,000 working pensioners, it said.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.