Preparing for retirement: How to ensure a higher pension

Who qualifies for a pension? A full pension is granted to men at the age of 60 with 25 years of work experience and to women at the age of 55 with 20 years of work experience. For those with relatively less work experience (at least 7 years), a partial pension is assigned.

What counts as work experience? For pension eligibility, work experience includes periods when individuals were officially employed and received a salary, worked as individual entrepreneurs, were self-employed, or worked abroad while paying social taxes to the Pension Fund.

In addition, periods such as military service, full-time study at higher education institutions, and childcare leave (up to 3 years per child, totaling 6 years) are also added to the general work experience if the individual has at least 7 years of official work experience.

How to prepare for retirement? When calculating pensions, the officially worked periods and the salaries (income) on which taxes were paid are considered.

To retire with a higher pension, the following are recommended:

-  Ensure that your employment is formal and that your work experience is being documented at your organization. You can independently verify this on the my.gov.uz portal;

-  Request your employer to digitize information about your work experience;

-  Pay attention to whether you are receiving an official salary. Regularly check the salary recorded for you, the actual salary you receive, the income tax deductions, contributions made toward your pension savings, and other relevant details;

-  If you are working informally, register as self-employed and pay the prescribed social tax to the Pension Fund. This will increase your work experience;

-  Stay updated on changes and information regarding pension legislation. Be aware of new amendments and additions;

-  If you are currently unemployed, contact the Department of Poverty Reduction and Employment to request the digitization of information in your work booklet. Once digitized, you can view your records on the my.gov.uz portal.

It is noted that digitizing employment records will help avoid unnecessary complications when it is time to retire.