Context: Belarus has changed the pension payment rules for civil servants. If they stay on after reaching retirement age, they will be able to receive both their salary and a length-of-service pension. The changes were adopted to keep experienced specialists in their jobs. The new rules will take effect on January 1, 2026.
In 2026, Lithuania will raise the retirement age and the required work record to qualify for a pension, and will also eliminate the gap between the retirement ages for men and women. Political analyst Andrei Lazutkin presented his interpretation of the changes for Lithuanian pensioners on the CTV program “Zanimatelnaya Politologiya” (“Entertaining Political Science.”)
“To receive even any kind of pension in Lithuania, you need 15 years of service. If you do not have that, you do not get anything at all. Whereas we have a social pension. And under the Lithuanian reform, you will need 35 years of service to receive a work pension. For comparison, here it is only 20,” political analyst Andrei Lazutkin said on air on December 16, 2025.
The minimum insured work record for a state pension in Lithuania is indeed 15 years. As in Belarus, there is a social pension, also known as an old-age social assistance pension. It comes to just under €250 a month. By comparison, in Belarus that payment is a little over €70 in equivalent terms.
Lazutkin claimed that in Belarus you have to work 20 years to get an old-age pension, and in Lithuania 35. That is not true. Lithuania’s pension system works differently: to qualify for a basic pension, you need at least 15 years of service — that alone entitles a person to about €300. To receive a higher pension, you have to cross the threshold of 34.5 years of insured service.
On top of that, Lithuanians have an individual pension component that is added to the basic amount. Its amount depends on a person’s salary level and years of service. For example, after working 15 years at the average wage, a Lithuanian will earn about €100 on top of the basic pension.
For a Belarusian, the right to a pension payment equal to 90% of the subsistence minimum budget — about 300 rubles, or €90 — arises only after 20 years of insured service. If someone has worked just a little less — 19 years, for instance — then all the contributions they have paid into the social protection fund over the years, and even a high salary, simply do not count.