Protection from social risks as a factor in ensuring the right to live in dignity

About the authors:

Yulia V. Ivanchina, Dr. Sci. (Jur.), Associate Professor, Department of Labor Law, Ural State Law University (Ekaterinburg); Julia.ivanchina@gmail.com; ORCID: 0000-0001-9306-2216

Yelena A. Istomina, Cand. Sci. (Jur.), Associate Professor, Department of Labor Law, Ural State Law University (Ekaterinburg); eistomina2011@gmail.com; ORCID: 0000-0003-4984-7627

Abstract:

The quality of human life as an important part of its worthy existence is directly related to the ability to meet socially significant, including basic living needs. Modern society can be called not just a society of chance and risk, but a society of risk. In the context of the difficult economic, social, and political situation in Russia, as well as the unpredictability of the future, the protection from social risks — primarily from their negative consequences by means of the social security system — is becoming one of the priorities of social policy. It must meet the expectations of all citizens and fit into the modern communicative context. This study employs the formal legal method and system analysis, as well as elements of the method of comparative law, which aided in studying the designated issue from interdisciplinary positions, as well as in demonstrating the practical interpretation of the concept of social risk and protection from it. The debatable aspects are considered on the example of indexation of pensions for working pensioners. The solution to this issue, which is ambiguously perceived by both the population and the scientific community, has received some development in recent years, the impetus for which was the position expressed by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in 2021. The article substantiates the opinion that the indexation of pensions for working pensioners does not fully comply with the constitutional principle of equality of rights and freedoms of all citizens. It puts them in an unequal position in terms of the purchasing power of their income, since the wages of working pensioners are guaranteed to be indexed. From the point of view of the psychological context, when making decisions and implementing them, it is necessary to pay attention to the achievement of consensus in society. Without proposing drastic measures to completely abolish the indexation of pensions for working pensioners, the authors propose the idea of a different terminological definition of this payment, which would allow building adequate communicative legal ties.

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