Military personnel who did not fight apply for combat veterans’ pensions

Military personnel who did not fight apply for combat veterans’ pensions

The inaction of the authorities led to a stalemate.

Ukrainian military pensioners have already sued tens of billions of hryvnia from the Pension Fund, and the amount is growing every month. This happened because with the outbreak of a full-scale war, the government did not delink their pensions from military salaries. So, pensioners with shoulder straps who have never been to war, due to the high salaries of current military personnel, have the right to recalculate their pensions. The rules need to be changed because the state does not have that kind of money, but neither the government nor the relevant committee of the Rada have yet decided to do this, writes Obozrevatel .

They tried to delink military pensions from current salaries back in 2017, but then such a decision could not be made. Now the authorities do not want to take unpopular steps, but such a need is long overdue. Of the half a million current military retirees, more than 150 thousand are under 60 years of age and do not have significant health problems. They have not participated and are not participating in hostilities, but they have the right to demand pensions through the courts, the amount of which reaches tens of thousands of hryvnia.

Military and courts against PFU: what is the problem

As of March 1, the Pension Fund owed pensioners UAH 66 billion. Most of this amount should go to military pensioners.

Last year, the amount of debt reached UAH 50 billion. The amount is growing rapidly, and at this rate will reach about UAH 100 billion in a few years. The problem is that there is no prospect of paying off this debt and, most likely, there will not be. This year alone, the government found only UAH 360 million to recalculate pensions through the courts. That is, if we assume that pensioners stop suing, then it will take at least 183 years to pay off those who have already won.

Some law firms have turned litigation against PFU into a separate business. Lawyers note: the position of lawyers is simple: there is a law that the state must comply with. If the Pension Fund is obliged by law to recalculate military pensions and does not do this, then the rights of pensioners need to be protected in court.

Indeed, as data from the court registry shows, military pensioners win the vast majority of cases. For example, in Kharkov, a military pensioner who retired back in the 90s, this year through the court increased his pension from 3.3 to 10.4 thousand UAH, according to the materials of case No. 520/21696/23. After the promotion, an additional payment of 2 thousand UAH was taken away from him, because his pension had already increased. Then he went to court again to get his extra payment back. And after a few years, he can again take a certificate of the amount of monetary remuneration in his position and again, through the court, oblige him to transfer a pension, also retroactively (that is, with compensation for underpaid funds for previous years).

The fact is that if almost all pensions in Ukraine are indexed according to general rules, then the military and some security officials have the right to an increase, taking into account the increase in salaries in their positions. That is, when a builder retires, his pension is indexed to a certain percentage, regardless of how much he currently earns in construction. But military pensions are tied to the salaries of active military personnel.

Former Minister of Social Policy Andriy Reva recalls: they tried to change the rules for indexing military pensions back in 2017, when he was responsible for social policy. However, at that time the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defence did not support this decision. The Ministry of Social Protection proposed increasing pensions equally: if all payments were increased, for example, by 15%, then, accordingly, payments to the military should also be increased. However, such conditions would make the situation worse for military retirees.

“We had 6 billion UAH of debt (for pensions increased by a court decision - Ed.), and mostly these were “Chernobyl victims,” explains Reva. With the beginning of a full-scale war, the situation began to worsen dramatically. During the war, the state significantly increased the salaries of the military and security forces. And at the same time, about half a million pensioners received the right to demand a recalculation of payments for themselves, taking into account the high salaries of the combatants.

582.4 thousand people receive a military pension, the PFU reported in response to an official request. The average age of such pensioners is less than 52 years. According to the law, it is possible to mobilize military pensioners, if they are under 60 years old, only in their own specialties. That is, a communications specialist can be mobilized exclusively as a communications operator. If the army does not need such specialties, then the pensioner will not be mobilized. As a result, according to the Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans’ Rights, only 21 thousand military pensioners are currently serving.

Another 217.5 thousand military pensioners under 60 years of age do not work or serve, and 84 thousand have found civilian jobs. All these people have the right to high pensions, just like the military personnel currently fighting.

Of the 217.5 thousand military pensioners under 60 years of age, only 65.1 thousand are unfit for military service due to health reasons.

The pension law, adopted back in 1992, guarantees that a citizen of Ukraine can retire with 25 years of military service and receive 65% of their salary. At the age of 45, you can retire with 25 years of service, if half of this service is military service. Then the pension will be at the level of 50% of the salary. For each subsequent year, the pension will increase by 1% of salary.

The rules need to be changed: everyone agrees with this, but nothing is being done

“It is impossible to compare the situation of the military who are fighting now and those who retired before 2014,” says the expert.

Experts, parliamentarians, and officials agree with this. However, as of now, nothing has been done to rectify the situation. Interlocutors in government offices explain: they decided not to touch this topic until the end of a full-scale war. However, the problem is that no one knows when a full-scale war will end and whether a situation critical for the PFU will arise by that time.

The government’s logic is as follows: worsening the pension conditions of the military is too unpopular a step.

The head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Social Policy and Protection of the Rights of Veterans, Halyna Tretyakova, stated that she was “ready to join in resolving these issues on a legislative level.”

She also suggested familiarizing herself with research on military pensions in Ukraine and abroad. “Former military pensions abroad depend solely on when and how many years the military man served and what amount of salary he received, while in Ukraine the pension is tied to the monetary support of today’s military,” Tretyakova announced one of the conclusions of this study.

She agrees that the situation needs to change.

Now the government is in no hurry to change anything, apparently waiting for the end of a full-scale war. But after the appearance of a large number of military pensioners who defended Ukraine in battles, there is a great risk that the state simply does not have enough money for military pensions for everyone. We will have to choose to carry out reforms, and they will look even more unpopular.

The state must provide social protection for veterans, including by guaranteeing them a high pension. But pensioners who did not participate in hostilities may well receive indexation according to the general rules.

grom-ua.org