Funds for increasing Chornobyl cleanup workers' pensions to be taken among others from social programs, says PM

Funds for increasing pensions to Chornobyl cleanup participants will be taken from other programs, including social ones, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said.

During the government meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday, the prime minister once again announced the intention to increase pensions to this category of citizens.

"The Cabinet of Ministers' resolution was published and came into force yesterday... it updates the procedure for calculating the pensions of people who were affected by the Chornobyl disaster... the government has significantly increased the size of the pensions to Chornobyl cleanup workers," Azarov said.

According to a resolution, posted on the Web site of the government on Wednesday, in 2012 Chornobyl cleanup workers - the disabled of the I group will get the pensions of UAH 5,440, the disabled of the II group - UAH 5,129, and the disabled of the III group UAH 3,942.

Besides, a guaranteed minimum amount of payments to disabled Chornobyl clean-up workers was introduced in the document for the first time. For Chornobyl clean-up workers - the disabled of the I group it is UAH 2,400, the disabled of the ІІgroup – UAH 2,147, the disabled of the ІІIgroup it is UAH 1,895.

Each time the subsistence wage for disabled people changes, these amounts will be increased, the document reads.