Enrollment of double experience for doctors

Medical workers in Ukraine are entitled to have double service credit (one year counted as two) for work performed under certain conditions, which allows them to retire earlier. We invite you to learn more about this legal provision, as well as the obstacles that medical professionals face in practice when trying to exercise this right. In addition, we will explain how the assistance of lawyers from the Law Office “Prikhodko & Partners” who specialize in pension law, can be beneficial to you.

What Article 60 of the Law of Ukraine “On Pension Provision” № 1788-XII states?

This very article contains the legal provision that defines work periods which are counted on a “one year for two” basis. In this way, work performed in the following medical institutions or departments is calculated:

• leprosy and anti-plague institutions;
• institutions and departments for the treatment of persons with AIDS or those infected with HIV;
• other infectious disease institutions and healthcare departments;
• pathology and anatomy departments;
• intensive care units;
• institutions specializing in the provision of psychiatric care.

It is worth separately addressing the specifics of how these legal provisions are applied as of today.

Preferential service record before and after 2004

In practice, retired medical professionals often face a situation where the Pension Fund does not object to counting service in double measure, but only for periods up to 2004. However, such actions are unlawful. The legal calculation of service under the above-mentioned article applies not only to service acquired before 2004, but also to periods after that date. For the purpose of determining the amount of the pension (the service coefficient), the insurance service record acquired before 2004 is calculated on the basis of the employment record book. The doubling is carried out on the basis of the already mentioned Article 60.

What to do if officials of the Pension Fund of Ukraine refuse to properly credit your service record?

As already mentioned, a fairly large number of retirees face this problem. To fully understand the context, it should be noted that lawsuits against the Pension Fund are among the most common categories of cases considered by administrative courts. Thus, many people indeed encounter unfair decisions by the Pension Fund regarding their individual cases.

However, this trend also indicates an important optimistic circumstance: if retired medical professionals go to court en masse, it means they are well aware of numerous cases in which their colleagues have managed to defend their rights and legitimate interests.

Therefore, you should not stop halfway when faced with a refusal to fairly calculate your insurance service record. Apply to the court to protect your violated rights. This will give you the opportunity to obtain a positive court decision and have your service credited in accordance with actual legal provisions. A pension lawyer can assist you with this.

How we can help?

As already noted, the only way in this situation to protect your violated right is to apply to the court. As many retirees have already experienced, letters, appeals, complaints, and personal visits to the Pension Fund do not produce any results. That is why it is not worth wasting your time and effort on tools of influence that are incapable of delivering a proper result within the legal framework.

It makes sense to immediately use the correct strategy of action, having first secured professional legal support. The lawyers of the Law Office “Prikhodko & Partners” know how to help you with this. Pension law is one of the areas of jurisprudence that is at the core of our practice. That is why we handle such cases competently. Accordingly, the action algorithm is as follows:

• Initial consultation, during which we discuss the details of potential cooperation and, if they suit you, proceed further.
• Comprehensive in-depth consultation, where the lawyer thoroughly analyzes all the circumstances of your case and the documents you have. If certain documents required for pension assignment and proper calculation of service are missing, we help obtain them—for example, by contacting medical institutions or archives (if, for instance, the institution where you worked has been liquidated).
• Legal support. At this stage, certain interactions with the Pension Fund are required. In order to challenge its decision, it is first necessary to obtain that decision. However, further letters and visits to this authority make no sense, as they do not yield results. This is confirmed by the real-life practice of many retirees.
• Filing a lawsuit. When your position is sufficiently well-founded and supported by documentary evidence, this makes it possible to achieve the desired result in the form of a court decision in your favor.
• Monitoring the enforcement of the court decision. Officials of the Pension Fund often delay the execution of court decisions, and attorney requests that we submit on this matter significantly speed up this process.

Thus, you can contact us for legal assistance if you encounter a problem with the correct calculation of your insurance service record. To do so, fill out the feedback form on our website, after which a pension law specialist will call you back.