16:24 25.04.2024

Ukrainians working abroad to be assigned with pensions taking into account their insurance experience there – Social Policy Ministry

4 min read
Ukrainians working abroad to be assigned with pensions taking into account their insurance experience there – Social Policy Ministry

The Verkhovna Rada adopted in the second reading bill No. 9453 which was developed by the Social Policy Ministry of Ukraine, the ministry's press service has said on Thursday.

After Russia launched a large-scale invasion, Ukraine broke off its diplomatic relations with the aggressor country. The contacts and document flow between the government agencies, including the pension funds, were terminated and the exchange of documents confirming the length of work experience and the amount of earnings has become impossible.

As a result, Ukrainians who moved to Ukraine from the temporarily occupied territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions were unable to fulfill the requirement of the current law in force – to confirm that they do not receive a pension from the pension authorities of the Russian Federation, and, therefore, be assigned with a pension in Ukraine.

In addition, Russia and Ukraine withdrew from an agreement between the CIS member states on guarantees of the rights of citizens of these countries regarding pension provision. In this regard, Ukrainians who worked part of their professional lives in Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, lost the opportunity to include periods of such work in their insurance experience in Ukraine. This, in turn, led to a reduction in their pension rights and, accordingly, the size of their pension, or even deprived them of the right to receive a retirement allowance.

"Bill No. 9453, adopted today, solves these and a number of other significant problems in the field of pensions," the ministry said.

Firstly, the bill facilitates the mechanism for resuming pension payments for Crimeans. The requirement to obtain information from the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation has been abolished. Now a person who has moved from Crimea only needs to submit an application noting that he or she does not receive a pension in Crimea and wants to receive it in Ukraine. To calculate your pension, you can provide your work book or pension file, if you have one on hand. No confirmation is required from the Pension Fund of the aggressor country.

Secondly, to determine the right to a pension, the insurance period obtained in other countries will be taken into account, even if a pension agreement has not been concluded with this country. That is, a person, upon returning from abroad, for example, from Italy, will be able to count the period of work in this country to determine the right to a pension in Ukraine at 60, 63 or 65 years. To do this, you will need to provide the Pension Fund with a document confirming work outside Ukraine.

"Please note that to determine the size of the pension, only contributions/single social contribution paid in Ukraine will be taken into account (the so-called proportional principle of calculating pensions). That is, the size of the assigned pension will depend on the number of insurance contributions paid in Ukraine (the larger the amount of contributions – the bigger the pension) and the length of service that a person has accumulated before January 1, 2024, and the time of retirement will take into account work both in Ukraine and abroad," the ministry said.

Thirdly, the insurance experience of work for the aggressor country after 2014 will not be taken into account when assigning a pension in Ukraine.

The law stipulates that from February 19, 2014, periods of military service in law enforcement agencies, illegal armed or paramilitary groups, judicial or law enforcement agencies of the aggressor state in temporarily occupied territories, as well as voluntary occupation of positions in illegal government bodies, will not be included in the insurance period from February 19, 2014.

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