The government at a meeting on Thursday approved the budget of the Pension Fund of Ukraine for 2016 with UAH 257 billion expenses and UAH 110 billion of revenue from payment of single social security tax.

Social Policy Minister Pavlo Rozenko said that grants from the national budget will be UAH 114 billion, including UAH 81.3 billion to cover the deficit and UAH 63 billion for other pension programs financed by the budget.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said that the government is waiting that business will legalize salaries in response to the reduction of single social security tax from 2016 from 41% to 22%, and the money saved on the tax are used to increase salaries and payments to the Pension Fund.

Rozenko said that the budget of the Pension Fund foresees a rise in the minimum pension this year by 12%: from May 1 from UAH 1,074 to UAH 1,130 and from December 1 – to UAH 1,208.

According to the Pension Fund, as of January 1, 2016, 12.313 million pensioners were registered, including 9.229 million person who receive old age security pensions. The average pension is UAH 1,700.22 compared to UAH 1,581.54 a year ago.

Expenses of the Pension Fund in 2015 reached UAH 265.7 billion, including a rise of 9.1% in paying pensions, to UAH 262 billion.

The national budget sent UAH 31.8 billion to cover the deficit of the Pension Fund last year, and UA 63 billion were planned transfers from the national budget to other pension programs.

Own revenue of the Pension Fund in 2015 grew by 3.6%, to UAH 169.8 billion or UAH 2.9 billion less than it was planned.