Features of the Pension Provision of Workers and Employees

Abstract

The purpose of the article is a comprehensive analysis of the pension system of workers and employees of the USSR in the 20s of the 20th century. . The research methodology of the study is the principles of historicism, objectivity and systematicity. In the context of studying the problem, general and special research methods were used: problem-chronological, systemic, historical-comparative, etc. The scientific novelty of the work is to reveal the features of the pension of workers and employees, which was based on the principles of social insurance. Conclusions. After seizing power in Ukraine, after several unsuccessful attempts, the Bolsheviks proclaimed the need to create an effective system of social protection of workers and employees on the ground. Of course, such statements had nothing to do with reality. In the conditions of the Civil War and economic ruin, the state did not have the funds to implement this program, even for a limited number of people. Therefore, the main purpose of such declarative statements was the desire of the occupying power to convince the lumpenized strata of the authorities' concern for them. With the transition to a new economic policy, the financial situation in the country has become even more complicated due to the limited capacity of the state budget in a market economy. In view of this, the Bolshevik republican authorities made a proposal to reorganize the social protection system on the principles of social insurance. Under the new conditions, insurance premiums were the main source of social benefits. One of the most important forms of social protection at that time was the provision of pensions to the disabled. Provision was made at the expense of employers' insurance premiums, the amount of which was determined by the harmfulness and danger of production. If in the first half of the 1920s the main reason for the payment of pensions was permanent disability (disability), then later pensions for old age and seniority were introduced. A significant number of people wishing to receive pensions and the difficult financial situation of social insurance (state-owned enterprises were exempt from paying contributions) did not allow providing pensioners according to the established norms. The size of the paid pensions, for the most part, was meager and did not allow to meet basic needs. Pensions were often replaced by food rations. In addition, the authorities periodically tried to limit the range of "non-proletarian" elements provided by the legislative deprivation of pensions and the meticulous activities of hospital control bodies, which determined the degree of disability.