Today, the pension system of the Republic of Kazakhstan is undergoing significant changes. Relatively recently, various pension funds of Kazakhstan worked in the republic, which implied competition, and hence the possibility of competition among themselves for attracting customers. However, for several years such a system did not give good results. The financial crisis was a difficult test for non-governmental organizations, which, in turn, had to take on all obligations to compensate for the losses of depositors. Therefore, it was decided to merge the pension funds of Kazakhstan into one, which will be directly subordinated to state structures. On the one hand, this implies control, and on the other, a guarantee of the safety of depositors' money.
First and leading
From the first day of opening, the National Pension Fund of Kazakhstan began to enjoy the greatest confidence of citizens. If you look at the official data, you can see that about 40% of all pension accumulations are concentrated here throughout the country. The remaining 60% is distributed between other funds. Such indicators allow PF Halyk Bank to be the main investor not only in Kazakhstan, but also abroad. Every fourth working citizen chooses the Pension Fund of the People’s Bank of Kazakhstan, and the number of depositors is constantly growing.
Merging Structures
Until 2014, each resident of the country had a choice of where to store his money. True, no one could dispose of them. How it looked: every month 10% of your salary is deducted, and a third-party organization disposes of them at its discretion, receives a profit that is not in a hurry to share with its investors. Pension funds of Kazakhstan demonstrated their failure, and a decision was made to merge these structures.
In April 2014, the chairman of the UAPF fund announced that from today all deposits will be transferred to the UAPF. The accumulations were transferred in the amount in which they were formed at the time of the transfer. Pension funds of Kazakhstan reported on funds paid.
Currently
All clients of former funds became UAPF investors. On the one hand, they didn’t have much choice, since the alternative no longer exists, but, on the other, they were assured that now the deposits are well protected. Moreover, the state will monitor not only the safety, but also the multiplication of these amounts. In other words, the Kazakhstan pension fund has become a more transparent system. Now citizens can receive full information about their savings, including extracts from the fund’s branches.
Depositor Information
In 2014, the Unified Pension Fund of Kazakhstan opened for its new investors about 2.5 million individual accounts, each of which is assigned to one of the investors. In parallel, voluntary pension agreements were concluded, there were about one and a half million of them. Pooling of funds took place as usual, strictly in accordance with the approved procedures. The transfer of pension assets occurred on one banking day.
Information Support
The accumulative pension fund of Kazakhstan assumes full transparency of the state of accounts for investors. People need to know what happens to their money and how much they can count on when they retire. In the spring of 2017, a centralized notification of citizens about accumulations was introduced. To do this, you just need to tell your nearest branch how you want to receive them.
Data can come in the form of SMS messages or in the form of an extract to e-mail. In addition, having received an individual password, you can enter the site yourself and view the replenishment of your account. Information on investment savings or losses incurred by the fund, which also become a problem for ordinary citizens, will also be posted here.
New technologies
The EPNF today developed and implemented a mobile application for smartphones and tablets. Now you do not need to take printouts or request data. Directly from your phone you can open an individual page and view the statement, contact the nearest branch and receive new information about the fund.
The application works in two languages, therefore it will be convenient for the entire population of Kazakhstan. In order to authorize the application, you need to enter a username and password with which the contributor logs on to the UAPF website. If you don’t have one, then you will need to go to any department and get the data.
Use of retirement money
This is a question that most people care about. Paying off 10% of their monthly salary, they are not able to control the contributions of these funds, and also to use them if there is a serious need for it. A reasonable question arises: why can a bank or a fund at its own discretion risk pension money, sometimes investing it in unprofitable financial institutions, and a person is deprived of the opportunity to get part of the accumulated money, even if he urgently needs it?
It should be noted that the pension model is not static. She is constantly changing. We study the world experience, appeals and wishes of investors, conduct calculations. Indeed, early withdrawals are a topical issue. There are people who need money today, for example, to pay for the treatment of a serious illness.
Prerequisites for Payments
When the funds were fragmented, the opportunity to receive material resources before retirement was practically zero. Only after combining all the assets and accounts of investors in the UAPF it became possible to create a single base and keep records of savings. And only now, 18 years after the creation of the pension system, the funds in a separate pension account have become any significant. This made it possible to talk not only about ensuring the life of a person in retirement, but also about increasing well-being before going on a well-deserved rest.
Special purpose
It is still impossible to withdraw money from a pension fund in Kazakhstan, but this issue is constantly being studied. Turning to world experience, we see that these funds should not be taken for current expenses. A prerequisite is exclusively the intended use of pension funds. This can be a vital operation or payment of a part of a mortgage loan for the purchase of a single home. Experts argue that free disposal of accumulated funds cannot be allowed, because otherwise, in a few decades, we will get a whole generation left without a livelihood. This money has a strictly defined purpose - providing life after retirement. And only after accumulating a sufficient amount, it will be possible to start using them ahead of schedule.
How much should be in the account
So, today a model is being developed on the basis of which a person must first accumulate a financial pillow that will ensure his life in retirement, and after exceeding this threshold, begin to gradually use these funds. But we are not talking about their complete withdrawal. After the depositor is 50 years old (for women) or 55 (for men), he has the right to transfer his savings to one of the insurance companies, after which the latter begins to charge payments in accordance with the concluded agreement.
Retirement annuity
This is another concept that future retirees will have to get to know. It is with this program that you will be able to receive your money before retirement age. As mentioned above, people can get them through insurance companies. Having estimated the accumulated amount, the company calculates an annual payment, which will increase annually by 5%.
But it’s not so simple. To use this right, a woman must have at least 8.8 million tenge on her account at the time she turns 50 years old. A man under 55 must earn at least 6.3 million. After the conclusion of the contract, you will receive 10% of this amount in your bank account within a week. And then every year - 25%. For example, if at the time of the conclusion of the contract the account had 10 000 0000 tenge, then a lump sum payment will be 1 000 000 tenge, and annual payments - 400 000. They are assigned for life.
Annuity Features
Payments are assigned on an ongoing basis, until the end of a person’s life. In addition, under the contract, you can set a period for heirs from 0 to 30 years. The insurance company makes it possible to receive an additional one-time payment of up to 8% of the amount of savings. And of course, indexing will be carried out every year. While it is assumed that it will be 5%, but it is quite possible that over time this amount will change upwards. Further changes in the work of the pension fund can be monitored on the official website.