Pensions to Chornobyl cleanup workers with disabilities will more than double from January 1, 2012, Deputy Prime Minister and Social Policy Minister Sergiy Tigipko said at a briefing on Wednesday.
He said that at a meeting on Wednesday, the Cabinet of Ministers passed a resolution to increase pension payments to citizens affected by the Chornobyl disaster.
"The individual wages of disabled cleanup workers will be updated on the basis of 2006, as for all retirees in Ukraine, and there will be a respective recalculation of pensions," Tigipko said.
He noted that the amount of additional pensions for disabled cleanup workers for the harm caused to their health due to the Chornobyl accident would also be increased. Tigipko said that these and other measures would help increase the average amount of pensions to them from UAH 1,815 to UAH 4,129.
He also said that the amount of benefits paid to disabled children affected by the Chornobyl accident would grow in 2012 from UAH 340 to UAH 994. Under the resolution, disabled people who lived in polluted areas, but did not participate in the elimination of the accident are regarded as categories of disabled cleanup workers. In particular, invalids of the first group will receive a pension of UAH 1,553, the second – UAH 1,294, and the third – UAH 1,225.
In addition, individuals who have lost their ability to work will have their pensions increased from UAH 1,786 to UAH 3,749, Tigipko said.
For these purposes, he said, it is necessary to raise UAH 1.9 billion, of which about UAH 500 million is envisaged in the draft state budget for 2012.
"The government is planning to get the remaining UAH 1.4 billion through the introduction of a luxury tax – at least UAH 800 million - and through the introduction of a separate tax on transactions with offshore zones - about UAH 3 billion, without taking into account operations in Cyprus," Tigipko said.
He expressed hope that MPs would accept the government's proposals and that the means to pay these pensions would thus be found.
