For the first time in Ukraine, the budget of the Pension Fund will allocate separate funds for payments based on court rulings. Currently, the state’s debt to pensioners for such rulings has reached nearly 85 billion UAH, a result of mass appeals by Ukrainians challenging the amount of their pensions in court.
This is reported by Finway
Debt from court rulings and a new financing mechanism
The debt amount arose because many citizens turned to the courts demanding recalculation and retroactive increases in their pensions. Over the past five years, the number of court rulings in pension disputes has increased more than 26 times — from tens of thousands to 758 thousand. The state has already repaid a significant portion of this debt, but the remaining amount is still very large.
“As a result of legislative inconsistencies, heterogeneous judicial practices, and the courts’ interpretation of any changes in social legislation as ‘narrowing the rights and freedoms of citizens,’ the number of court rulings regarding pensions has increased more than 26 times over five years — from several tens of thousands to 758 thousand. The state has already paid more than half of the amount awarded by court rulings. Nevertheless, the remaining debt that has yet to be paid currently stands at nearly 85 billion UAH,” wrote Marchak.
Transparency of payments and a new distribution order
From now on, payments based on court rulings will be divided by sources of financing: part of them will be made from the state budget (specifically, this concerns “special” pensions), while the other part will come from insurance contributions. The same rules will apply for executing court rulings for both current pension payments after recalculation and for additional funds for previous years.
Monthly payments will be received by all beneficiaries simultaneously, depending on the amount available in the Pension Fund’s budget for that specific month. This differs from the previous system, where funds were paid “sometime later.” All information about the execution of court rulings will be available on the PFU portal in the citizen’s personal account.
Currently, technical preparations are underway to implement the new mechanisms, and the relevant resolution has already come into effect. At the same time, it is emphasized that the new approach will not solve the debt problem instantly but will provide a transparent and fair solution for gradually repaying the debt and restoring the state’s reputation as a responsible executor of its obligations.
Currently, the state has only paid debts for court rulings that came into effect before November 20, 2020. The remaining cases are still in line, and the government has approved a unified procedure for pension payments and supplements awarded by court rulings.