Complaint against the actions of the Pension Fund

As practice shows, representatives of the Pension Fund very often take a position in their work that is not only contrary to the interests of the pensioner, but also to the norms of current legislation and the practice of the Supreme and Constitutional Courts. This is confirmed, at least, by the fact that a significant number of lawsuits that are filed with administrative courts concern various issues of pension law, and the defendant is the Pension Fund.

If you need high-quality advice in this area of ​​jurisprudence, as well as support in interacting with the Pension Fund and representing interests in court, you can contact the lawyers of the law firm “Prikhodko&Partners” on this matter. We support such cases regularly, so we know how to provide quality assistance in them.

What kind of requests do we receive?

When clients are dissatisfied with the decisions, actions or inaction of the Pension Fund, this usually concerns the following categories of requests:

• Decision to refuse to grant a pension. For example, due to unclear entries in the work book, a person is refused to grant a pension.
• Incorrect calculation of insurance experience and/or pension amount. For example, military personnel often apply for such problems, so we will consider this in more detail below.
• Inclusion or non-inclusion of certain periods of work in the preferential experience. This, for example, may apply to those pensioners who are entitled to receive a pension under List 1 and List 2. This refers to those who work in harmful or dangerous working conditions. For example, representatives of the Pension Fund often have questions about the certification of workplaces. However, this is not the only problem that may occur here.
• Termination of pension payment. For example, there are cases when a pensioner has left for permanent residence abroad. However, the current legislation is on the side of a person who has paid contributions to the Pension Fund throughout his entire working life.

If we talk in general about the requests with which clients turn to lawyers on pension law, then we can conditionally distinguish two large groups here – on military and civilian pensions.

Civil and military pensions

Civil pensions may be affected by the already mentioned correct calculation of preferential service for people who worked in dangerous or harmful conditions. And if we talk about military pensions, then here too there will be a whole range of possible reasons for appeals.

We are often contacted by military personnel who have received an updated certificate of financial support, on the basis of which the pension should be recalculated, but additional types of financial support are not taken into account when recalculating. Our practice shows that after appealing the actions of the PFU, the clients’ pension increases significantly. In some cases, it is more than doubled. There are also problems with the inclusion of mixed service – this is when a military personnel has not only seniority in the army or other state security structure, but also insurance experience in civilian work. In addition, frequent reasons for appeals are the refusals of PFU officials to establish a pension supplement of 2,000 hryvnias, in accordance with the relevant Government Resolution. Such cases are widespread in administrative courts. And, it is worth noting that they are winning.

The key problems that we are most often contacted with were mentioned above. But if you have another question regarding pension law and interaction with the Pension Fund, we are ready to consider it, because we work with a wide variety of requests and always keep our finger on the pulse of legislative changes in order to help our clients effectively and efficiently.

What should you know about the legislative regulation of appealing the actions of the Pension Fund of Ukraine?

An important regulatory legal act is the “Procedure for considering complaints against decisions of the Pension Fund of Ukraine bodies regarding pension provision”, approved by the resolution of the Pension Fund of Ukraine Board of Directors dated 12.10.2007 № 18-6. In particular, it is worth noting the following key theses regarding the appeal:

1. A complaint to the Pension Fund regarding the actions or inaction of its officials may be filed both personally and through an authorized representative whose powers are duly certified.
2. An appeal to the Pension Fund does not exclude the possibility of also using the judicial method of protecting one’s rights and legitimate interests.
3. The complaint is filed with the higher-level Pension Fund body within a month from the moment the applicant became familiar with the appealed decision.
4. If the deadline is missed for a good reason, it may be renewed.
5. The complaint must be filed in writing and meet the requirements set forth in the current legislation.
6. A decision on the complaint must be made by representatives of the Pension Fund within a month from the date of its receipt and sent to the applicant’s address by mail with subsequent delivery against receipt.

The decision of the Pension Fund may be to leave the complaint without consideration, to fully or partially satisfy it. If the appeal directly to the Pension Fund did not yield the desired result, in this case a lawsuit should be filed with the court.

We are ready to offer legal support for your case in court. So if you need help from pension law specialists, fill out the feedback form on our website.