While some Ukrainians may have their pensions reduced, sometimes the pension may be temporarily suspended – and this is not always a sign of problems with the right to payment. Expert Viktor Bogdanov told what situations most often lead to suspension and how to quickly return the funds, writes the specialized publication “On Pension”.
Reasons for suspension of payments
The pension fund or the court can temporarily suspend the pension for several reasons:
incomplete or false documents – if errors are found during the check;
residence abroad – although the previously valid restriction was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court;
lack of receipt of payments for more than 6 months – in this case, the pension is automatically suspended;
failed identification – relevant, for example, for internally displaced persons.
How to restore the pension
To restore the payments, you need to contact the territorial department of the PFU at the place of registration or residence. To do this, you will need:
application for pension renewal;
passport or other identity document;
identification code;
certificates that affect the amount of the pension (dependents, allowances, disability, etc.);
for citizens from Crimea – confirmation that a pension was not received from the Russian Federation, and a declaration of lack of Russian citizenship.
After applying, the PFU must restore the payment within ten days.
In order not to lose a single penny
After the pension is restored, it is important to check the indicator by which the amount was calculated. It should be calculated from the current average salary at the time of restoration. If there are doubts, you should submit a written application for recalculation.
Example: pensioner Mykola has been receiving a Ukrainian pension since 2005. In 2016, he moved to Russia and registered a pension there, which is why the payment in Ukraine was stopped. Returning in 2024, he applied to the PFU, where they first calculated a pension based on the outdated 2017 indicator – UAH 3,764.40. After a written request, a recalculation was made based on the 2024 figure — 7,994.47 UAH, the difference per month was 4,656.89 UAH.
If Mykola had not filed an application, he would have lost more than 4.5 thousand UAH per month.
