Some Ukrainians may be left without pensions or lose part of the payments. It became known that the Ministry of Finance will begin a total check, and the recipients of pensions will be checked against many registers.
Under the gun of the Ministry of Finance
So, the Ministry of Finance has already developed a draft order on the approval of the methodology for verifying pension payments and monthly life allowance. So far, the order has not entered into force, but only published for discussion on the website of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine. The Federation asks to send proposals and comments until February 21. They will be taken into account in the response of the Ministry of Finance.
The order of the Ministry of Finance on pensions will come into force from the moment of its official publication.
It is already known that verification will consist of three stages:
• Verification of compliance with the requirements for the exchange of information on personal data of pensioners (validation).
• Authentication of personal data about pensioners.
• Verification of the legitimacy of the provision of pension payments and monthly life allowance.
Data held by the FSP will be cross-checked with data from other sources providing information on Pension Fund recipients.
Check data on:
• death of the recipient and/or his legal representative according to the data of the State Register of acts of civil status of citizens;
• the recipient’s disability group, category of his disability, the period for which disability is established according to the data of the centralized data bank on disability problems;
• permanent residence of the recipient abroad or the decision to stay permanently abroad or return to live in Ukraine according to the data of the Unified State Demographic Register.
If the verification reveals a violation or inconsistency of the data, then the payment of the pension will either be stopped, or the pensioner will be forced to return the overpayment received illegally.
An interesting point concerns the residence of a pensioner abroad. Recall that thousands of pensioners have become refugees in different countries of the world, some have been living there for a year.
“Formally, it makes no difference for the Pension Fund where a person lives. If he earned a pension in Ukraine, he cannot be deprived of these payments. I do not exclude that such a check will be aimed at identifying the facts of a person receiving both Ukrainian and Russian pensions also registration of Russian pensions by Ukrainians living in the temporarily occupied territory,” Oleg Penzin, head of the Economic Discussion Club, said in a media commentary.
Hard Checks
It should be noted that they began to talk about verification and more stringent conditions for pensioners back in April last year. Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko said on the air of the telethon that, despite the deficit of the Pension Fund, the amount of social benefits for the population is not planned to be reduced. Instead, stricter verification of recipients is expected. Even then, he predicted a decrease in the number of recipients of such assistance.
It is also much easier now to lose a pension or part of it, so you need to be very careful. For example, pensioners who do not use their bank account for a long time may lose their pension, the Ministry of Social Policy recalled.
That is, if a Ukrainian receiving a pension has not used his bank account for more than six months, then the accrual of pensions stops automatically. To avoid this, it is necessary to make a transaction with a card on which a pension is accrued – top up a mobile phone account, make a purchase in a store, pay utility bills.
How not to be left without a pension during verification
The issue of verification of pensions, even before the new resolution, was explained by an expert on pensions, Sergei Korobkin.
So, the law provides for a number of cases when a pension can be cut or canceled altogether. In order to somehow save budgetary funds, a total check of pension payments is underway – all of a sudden someone receives a pension illegally or receives more than it should be.
Korobkin recalled that a person must sign a memo during the appointment of a pension, but often does not read it carefully. After signing, the newly-made pensioner undertakes to notify the territorial bodies of the Pension Fund about the circumstances affecting the change in the amount of the pension or the termination of its payment within ten days.
In this case, you must provide a document confirming, in particular:
• employment, dismissal from work, registration or deregistration as an individual entrepreneur. A document confirming that a person receiving a superannuation pension has got a job that gives the right to a superannuation pension (the payment of a pension is terminated for the entire period of work in this post);
• continuation of full-time education in general educational institutions, as well as vocational and higher educational institutions by children receiving a survivor’s pension until they reach the age of 23;
• obtaining, changing or depriving of a special status (giving certain benefits, the right to allowances, etc.);
• change of place of residence (registration);
• departure for permanent residence abroad.
“Unfortunately, this memo is rarely read. There is still a lot of interesting things not only on this topic,” the expert reproaches.
Another common case when a pension can be cut is if a person officially got a job and did not report it.
“Let’s imagine that a person is considered unemployed. His pension was automatically recalculated twice a year. Periodically, the Pension Fund makes a reconciliation and, according to personalized records, sooner or later it is calculated that a person got a job. As a result, the pension is transferred back, cut, and an overpayment is also charged Overpaid amounts begin to be withheld every month, which most often becomes an unpleasant surprise for a pensioner, “Korobkin says.
Article 50 of the Law of Ukraine On Compulsory State Pension Insurance states that the amounts of pensions overpaid due to abuse by the pensioner or the provision of false data by the insured may be returned by the pensioner voluntarily, or may be charged on the basis of decisions of the Pension Fund. judicially. In this case, 20% is usually deducted from the pension every month until the full repayment of the overpayment.
In the previous, 49th article of this Law, cases are described when the payment of a pension is completely terminated:
• it turns out that the pension was granted on the basis of documents containing unreliable information;
• for the entire period of residence of a pensioner abroad, unless otherwise provided by international treaties of Ukraine;
• in case of death of a pensioner;
• in case of non-receipt of the assigned pension within six months.
Valeria Shipulya
