The Pension Fund will compensate the expenses of northern pensioners in traveling to their vacation destination by personal car since August 24, 2022. The government resolution, which broadened the possibility of compensation for traveling to the vacation destination and back, took effect on that day. Earlier, compensations were paid for using any kind of transport but personal.
Now a pensioner, who uses one’s own car to travel to the vacation destination, can be compensated for the price of gasoline, gas or other fuel. According to acting Chairman of the Pension Fund Board Sergey Chirkov, such expenses are compensated since the end of August. “Amendments to the rules of compensation of vacation travel expenses took effect in Russia on August 24 for northern pensioners. Since that date, our territorial divisions have been compensating the cost of fuel of a pensioner’s travels to a vacation destination by one’s own vehicle. Divisions said that the first compensations had already been paid,” he said.
Last year, the Pension Fund compensated vacation travel expenses of 233,000 northern pensioners in 2021, Chirkov said “An average compensation received by pensioners after their return from vacation is 16,000 rubles,” he said.
According to the updated rules, vacation travel expenses are compensated on several conditions. First of all, the maximum limit of the compensation is established. It depends on the average cost of a reserved seat on a train that brings a pensioner to the vacation destination, as well as the limit of fuel established by the Transport Ministry and the shortest route to the vacation destination.
A pensioner needs to apply to the Pension Fund client service at the place of residence or a multifunctional center that provides such services. The application shall be submitted with a document, which proves that a car belongs to the compensation recipient or the husband/wife. It could be a registration certificate or a vehicle passport. Also, it is necessary to enclose checks from gas filling stations and an RZD certificate of an average cost of a reserve seat to and from the vacation destination.
Please note that the compensation of vacation travel expenses is provided to non-working recipients of old-age or disability pensions who live in the north either permanently or temporarily. Compensation can be received once in two years.