PENSION REDUCTION TO FORMER MILITARY OFFICERS AND MILITARY POLICEMEN ON THE BASIS OF A COURT DECISION

It should be noted, retired military personnel, that the special law regulating their pension provision is the Law of Ukraine “On pension provision for persons discharged from military service and some other persons” dated April 09, 1992 № 2262-XII (hereinafter referred to as the Law).

This Law defines the conditions, norms and procedure for providing pensions to citizens of Ukraine from among those who were in military service.

The state must guarantee a decent pension provision for persons entitled to a pension under this Law by establishing pensions for them not lower than the subsistence minimum determined by law, recalculate the assigned pensions in connection with an increase in the level of monetary allowance, provide state social guarantees provided for by law, accept state level of measures aimed at their social protection.

However, during the next mass (all-Ukrainian) recalculation of pensions for such categories of pensioners in 2018, the State, represented by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, nevertheless made a number of violations in the calculation and subsequent recalculation of pensions.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE ADOPTION OF SUB-LEGISLATION REGULATORY – LEGAL ACTS REGULATING THE PENSION PROVISION OF MILITARY PERSONNEL

On August 30, 2017, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted Decree № 704, which entered into force on March 1, 2018, and which approved the tariff scales of ranks and coefficients of official salaries, schemes of tariff ranks, tariff coefficients, additional types of monetary allowance, the size of the allowance.

On February 21, 2018, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted Resolution № 103, paragraphs 1 and 2 of which established to transfer from 01.01.2018 pensions assigned in accordance with Law № 2262-ХІІ to 03.01.2018 ) and the police), taking into account the size:

• official salary;
• salary for a military (special) rank;
• percentage bonus for length of service in the relevant or similar position that the person occupied on the date of dismissal from service (on the date of a business trip to work in public authorities, local governments or bodies formed by them, at enterprises, institutions, organizations, higher educational institutions ) determined as of March 1, 2018 in accordance with Resolution № 704.

However, on 03/05/2019, the decision of the District Administrative Court of the city of Kyiv dated 12/12/2018 in case № 826/3858/18 came into legal force, which recognized paragraphs 1, 2 of Resolution № 103 and amendments to paragraph 5 and Appendix 2 as illegal and invalid.

That is, in fact, from 03/05/2019 – the day the court decision in case № 826/3858/18 came into force – there were grounds for recalculating pensions assigned in accordance with Law № 2262-XII, taking into account the size of the official salary, military (special) salary rank, percentage bonus for long service and additional types of monetary allowance, based on the amount of components calculated in accordance with Decree № 704 in accordance with the requirements of Articles 43 and 63 of Law № 2262-XII and Article 9 of Law № 2011-XII.

PROCEDURE FOR RECALCULATION OF PENSION FOR SUCH CATEGORIES OF PERSONS

Unfortunately, there is no automated mechanism for recalculating pensions for former military personnel, taking into account additional types of monetary support, and therefore certain active actions must be taken, namely:

• Initially, apply to the authorized body – the structure from which the pensioner was dismissed, such as: TCC SP (former military registration and enlistment offices), Ministry of Internal Affairs (police pensioners dismissed from the apparatus), State Institution “TMO Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the relevant region” (all other policemen), SBU, GSChS, GNSU and other bodies with an official statement on the preparation and sending to the PFU bodies of an updated certificate of the amount of monetary allowance.
• After receiving such a certificate, apply to the PFC territorial body to recalculate on the basis of the above certificate, however, it should be noted here that the PFC will not voluntarily carry out such a recalculation, referring to the canceled resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
• Therefore, the last step will be to appeal such a refusal to the court along with a full package of documents demanding to oblige the recalculation of the pension based on the updated certificate.

WHICH CATEGORIES OF MILITARY PENSIONERS HAVE THE RIGHT TO ALMOST DOUBLE PENSION INCREASE ON THE BASIS OF A COURT DECISION?

Absolutely all pensioners are military personnel who are assigned a pension in accordance with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine № 2262 and retired before 2018.

Namely, pensioners – military personnel: of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, police officers of the relevant Main Directorates, Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (National Guard of Ukraine), State Emergency Service, State Tax Service, SBU, Foreign Intelligence Service, Main Intelligence Directorate and others.

Summarizing all of the above, it should be said that many pensioners still try to start everything on their own, believing that everything is clear and there is nothing complicated, or they turn to unqualified lawyers with no experience in this matter.

In the future, unfortunately, they lose the opportunity to increase pensions due to mistakes made, so in order not to miscalculate, I advise you to seek legal advice and subsequent full legal support in this category of cases from our law firm, lawyers who specialize specifically in military pensions and have extensive experience in this area.