In Ukraine, prosecutors may be deprived of extraordinarily high pensions
Ukrainian prosecutors may be left without large pensions. This will happen if Ukraine decides to establish uniform conditions for pension recalculation, regardless of the law under which they are calculated.
The Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Social Policy, Halyna Tretyakova, has already submitted to the Verkhovna Rada the relevant draft law 12165 regarding pension provision for certain categories of employees (officials).
"Despite the war, a situation has arisen in Ukraine where, due to different applications of pension legislation norms over the past 10 years, the number of lawsuits for the appointment and establishment of pensions by court decision, mostly by prosecutors, has increased. Moreover, employees of prosecution bodies, along with privileged pension calculation conditions, have the exclusive right to appoint a pension for years of service without leaving their job and to receive a double prosecutor’s salary. This situation is unacceptable and requires changes. Under such conditions, it is necessary to determine uniform conditions for the recalculation of special pensions, regardless of the law under which the pension is calculated, and also uniform conditions in the appointment of pensions for years of service," according to the explanatory note. In particular, the draft law proposes:
- to appoint a pension for years of service to prosecutors after their dismissal from prosecution bodies;
- to recalculate pensions for law enforcement officers and prosecution employees considering the increase in monetary income of the population in Ukraine and the rise in consumer prices using a growth coefficient;
- to implement from January 1, 2025, the fifth part of Article 61 of the Law "On Lawmaking Activities," which stipulates that if a law norm is recognized as unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, this does not provide a basis for courts to use the norms of laws that are no longer in force when making decisions (this is also stated in the Memorandum with the IMF);
- to legislatively establish that changes to pension legislation can only be made through a separate law amending the Law "On Mandatory State Pension Insurance" or "On Pension Provision for Persons Released from Military Service and Certain Other Persons".
- the final provisions propose that the Cabinet of Ministers submit for the Verkhovna Rada’s consideration a draft law on the introduction of a professional pension system from July 1, 2026, for prosecutors, judges, law enforcement officials, defense bodies of Ukraine, and anti-corruption agencies with accumulation elements for highly paid positions, the average monthly salary of which exceeds the average monthly salary in the country for the previous year, financed by income from such positions.
It is also proposed to establish that pensions granted to military personnel, persons entitled to a pension under this law, and their family members are recalculated annually from March 1, considering the increase in monetary income of the population in Ukraine and the rise in consumer prices using a growth coefficient. The procedure and conditions for such recalculation are determined by the Cabinet of Ministers.
At the same time, there will remain the possibility to recalculate the pension considering bonuses, increases, additional pension, targeted financial assistance, pension for special services to Ukraine, and other pension supplements. The recalculation will be conducted for the past time, but for no more than 12 months from the day additional documents are submitted.
31 October 2024 г., 20:02
