Pension recalculation: why is it worth suing?

Representatives of the Pension Fund in very many cases are not on the side of the pensioner, as evidenced by the large number of lawsuits against this state structure by way of administrative proceedings. When there are conflicts of legal norms, even the practice of the Supreme and Constitutional Courts of Ukraine in favor of the pensioner does not become an argument for the Pension Fund to reconsider its position. An equally significant problem is that often pensioners themselves do not know their rights and opportunities. As a result – in the issue of recalculation of pensions, people are underpaid for the earned and stipulated by the legislation pension provision in full.

What to do in such a situation?

If you have the right to recalculation of the pension, and representatives of the Pension Fund refuse it, it is worth turning to competent lawyers who can defend your rights and legitimate interests in court. Such experts you will meet in the team of the Law Office “Prikhodko and Partners”. We employ specialists who are well-versed in pension law and know in which algorithm to work – both in the issue of military pensions and in the topic of social security of civilian pensioners.

If the legislation is on your side, but you doubt the possibility of influencing the Pension Fund, which reacts by refusing your request for recalculation of pension, it is worth knowing one important fact on this topic. He is that such cases are winnable, and therefore it makes sense to go to the result in the matter of asserting their own rights. This is much easier to do when your interests in court are represented by qualified lawyers, for whom such work is part of daily practice. So you free yourself from the need to independently understand the numerous legal norms, as well as – the practice of the Supreme Court and the CCU.

What is worth knowing about the legislative regulation of pensions?

Pension law is a fairly broad branch of jurisprudence, where the regulation and specialized legal acts depend on what kind of pension we are talking about – military or civilian. Here you need to know a few important aspects:

• General (or civilian) pensions are regulated by the Law on Compulsory State Pension Insurance.
• The main legal act regulating military pensions is the Law “On Pension Provision for Persons Dismissed from Military Service and Certain Other Persons”.
• Special pensions, which are relevant for certain categories of persons, are regulated by the Law “On Public Service” or the Law “On the Status and Social Protection of Citizens Affected by the Chernobyl Disaster”.

Thus, even the basic list of legislation is quite broad. And in such cases, you should know that one issue can be regulated by several laws and bylaws, the norms of which are in conflict with each other. Also, to defend yourself, you need to understand the judicial practice in exemplary cases. This is a decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine on a particular case, which is binding for further similar cases. Our team has a deep awareness of such issues and knows what decisions of the Supreme Court of Ukraine should be referred to in a particular case on pension recalculation.

Why sue the Pension Fund?

The bulk of cases in administrative courts are trials with the PFU or its main departments. This reality of judicial practice shows that representatives of the Pension Fund will not voluntarily recalculate the pension. Therefore, when a pensioner postpones the decision to contact a lawyer on pension law and defend his rights, he only delays the solution of the situation and postpones the day when he will be able to receive the proper amount of pension.

What does our practice testify to?

Having sufficient experience and a great number of successful cases in the matter of recalculation of pensions, our experts can confidently say about the cases in which you can count on a positive result.

In appeals of military pensioners we are talking about cases concerning:

• pension recalculation on the basis of an updated certificate of financial support;
• recalculation of the pension without limiting its maximum amount (representatives of the PF often artificially limit the maximum amount of the pension, referring to legal norms recognized as inconsistent with the Constitution);
• recalculation of the pension in its proper percentage;
• return to military servicemen of the supplement to the pension in the amount of 2 thousand hryvnias;
• assignment of pensions when it comes to preferential and calendar assignment.

If we talk about civilian pensioners, the winning cases are those when representatives of the Pension Fund refuse to:

1. assign a pension because they do not take into account the actual length of service or have questions to the entries made in the labor book;
2. to transfer a pensioner from retirement pension to civil servant pension under the “old” Law;
3. continue to pay pensions for those pensioners who have traveled abroad;
4. to assign additional payment on the basis of pensioner’s residence in the 2nd and 3rd zones of Chernobyl NPP;
5. transfer a pensioner from one type of pension to another when he/she is entitled to it;
6. to assign a preferential pension according to Lists No. 1 and No. 2.

In all these situations our team of specialists can help qualitatively and competently. Therefore, do not hesitate to receive pension provision in the amount that is really provided for you by the legislation.