SAMPLE CASE ON PENSION RECALCULATION FOR MILITARY SERVANTS

At retirement, everyone expects a decent reward for many years of work. But the reality is completely different. In order to receive a decent pension, servicemen who have reached retirement age are forced to try to exercise their right to recalculation and pension increase in court.

Analyzing court practice, one can understand that it is not possible to increase pension payments without a court decision.

In exemplary cases, the Supreme Court of Ukraine has repeatedly pointed out that the actions of the PFU in refusing to transfer pensions to military personnel are illegal. But the bodies of the PFU will continue to make illegal decisions regarding the recalculation of military pensions. This leads to the fact that the issue of adequate and fair pension provision can be resolved only in court.

For example, the issue of the recalculation of previously awarded pensions is provided for in Article 63 of Law № 2262-XII, according to which the recalculation of previously awarded pensions, in connection with the implementation of this Law, is carried out based on the documents in the pension file. That is, the PFU independently recalculates pensions according to the available documents. But, unfortunately, there are cases that after such recalculation the pension does not increase, but on the contrary decreases.

The Supreme Court of Ukraine decided the exemplary case dated October 16 № 240/5401/18, which related to the reduction of the basic amount of the previously assigned pension.

The essence of this dispute

The plaintiff referred to the fact that he is a pensioner and since March 2004 he has been receiving a pension in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On Pensions of Persons Discharged from Military Service and Certain Other Persons" in the specified amount of 83 % of the amount of monetary support.

By Resolution № 704 of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the financial support of military personnel was increased. The defendant in the case independently recalculated the plaintiff's pension starting from January 1, 2018. But this led to the fact that the amount of the plaintiff's pension was significantly reduced, namely to 70 % of the amount of monetary support.

In his claims, the plaintiff indicated that the assignment and recalculation of pension are completely different procedures in terms of content, concept and mechanism, the amendments to Part 2 of Art. 13 of the specified Law absolutely do not relate to the recalculation of the previously assigned pension. In this situation, the amount of monetary support in percentages, which was established at the time of the pension award, should be applied.

Conclusion of the Court

By its decision, the Supreme Administrative Court of the Supreme Court satisfied the plaintiff's claim. In this decision, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court indicated that when recalculating the plaintiff's pension, there are no grounds for applying the procedure for recalculating the pension using the provisions of Part 2 of Art. 13 of the specified Law, which is applied directly when assigning a pension. Therefore, during the recalculation of the pension, the amount that changes is only the amount of monetary support. That is, the percentage value of the amount of the basic pension, which was calculated during its appointment in accordance with the years of service available to the claimant.

Regarding the exemplary case

The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court also pointed out that this decision is exemplary for cases in which the subject of the dispute is the reduction of the percentage of the basic pension.

So, as can be seen from the above, military personnel have enough problems with the transfer of pensions. But it is possible to protect your violated right to a decent pension by contacting specialists in the field of pension law. Lawyers will not only analyze a specific case, but also help, if necessary, to defend the violated right in court.