Starting from April, some displaced pensioners may lose their benefits

Some Ukrainian pensioners may find themselves without money as early as April. March 31 marks the final deadline for undergoing identification with the Pension Fund, and those who do not complete it will simply stop receiving pensions.

However, there are peculiarities to undergoing this identification, and not all pensioners will be able to do so, claims Rostislav Kravets, head of the “Kravets and Partners” law association.

At the end of last year, the Cabinet of Ministers made amendments to its resolution No. 637, which concerns social payments to internally displaced persons. The document rewrote the sections regarding pensioners among the internally displaced persons. This applies not to new migrants who acquired this status after the start of full-scale war, but to those who were registered as internally displaced persons before February 24, 2022. This includes pensioners from Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea, who were required by the authorities in 2014 to undergo checks every 3-6 months.

“The Constitutional Court has already recognized such additional conditions as illegal, since people have the right to a pension by earning a certain length of service. And they should not have to fulfill any other conditions to receive it,” says Kravets.

Since 2020, pensioners among the internally displaced have not been subject to checks. However, the cancellation of identifications was justified then by the coronavirus quarantine. But the quarantine officially ended in July of last year when the terms of the relevant Cabinet resolution expired. Therefore, in August 2023, the government adopted resolution No. 837, which stated that to receive pensions in 2024, pensioners among the internally displaced must undergo identification by the beginning of the year.

But at the end of last year, the Cabinet postponed this date to the end of March 2024.

The Pension Fund clarified that there are several ways to undergo identification:

• Personally visit an Oschadbank branch or a Pension Fund subdivision with an identity document.
• Undergo remote identification using a qualified electronic signature “Diia Pidpys” through the personal account on the Pension Fund’s electronic services portal.
• Through video conferencing in territorial bodies of the Pension Fund.
• In Ukrainian diplomatic missions abroad if the person is outside the country. The latter must issue a certificate stating that “the individual is alive.” In other words, the authorities want to ensure there is no misuse of pensions, and payments are not being made to deceased individuals.

In addition, Oschadbank will regularly, by the 25th of each month, inform the Pension Fund of internally displaced persons who have not conducted any transactions with their pension cards in the last 6 months.

What will happen if identification is not completed? The Cabinet resolution clearly states that pension payments will cease after March 31, 2024.

“Pensions will be calculated but not paid until identification is completed,” explained Kravets.

The same scheme applies to “dormant” pension bank cards: “pension accrual continues, but the amount is not transferred to recipients’ accounts until identification is completed,” the resolution states.

Identification is not conducted only for pensioners with disabilities of the І group who receive pensions with home delivery.

The resolution specifies how citizens currently living abroad will receive their pensions. After undergoing identification at Ukrainian diplomatic missions, all payments will continue as usual.

However, there is an exception for those currently residing in Russia or Belarus. No separate scheme has been outlined for them. Consequently, such individuals will not be able to receive pensions either on general terms or under special conditions. Essentially, they will be deprived of money altogether.

Kravets says that overall, many pensioners will find it difficult to undergo identification.

“For thousands of people, despite the easing of remote identification, identification through a bank visit or the Pension Fund remains the only option available. Because not everyone can handle ‘Diia’ or video conferencing. And not everyone has suitable technical means for this. The government’s requirement to have a smartphone is essentially illegal, and in the case of going to court, people would almost certainly win the case. But, obviously, grandmothers won’t go to court, which is apparently what was expected,” Kravets noted.

Therefore, starting next month, the first refuseniks will appear – those who will not receive pensions on their cards and will have to urgently resolve the identification issue. It is understandable that payments will resume later, but how will people live during this time – that is an open question.

The Cabinet resolution also addresses not only pensioners but also all internally displaced persons receiving social assistance from the state. Thus, those who have not conducted operations with their cards at Oschadbank for more than a year will not receive money. Oschadbank will collect information about such cards and transmit it to the Ministry of Social Policy by the 25th of each month.

“In Ukraine, there are 2.6 million recipients of social assistance from the state among internally displaced persons, half of whom are of working age, 40% of whom are currently unemployed,” says Andriy Zablotskyi, head of the secretariat of the Council of Entrepreneurs under the Cabinet of Ministers.