Privileged old age: As specialpcancies eat billions from the Pension Fund

The problem is that the clan system of specialics  has been formed for decades by privileged clans. It is a grid that clings to its material skin interest. These are the former, but very influential people in the country. They cling to the norm of the Constitution, which prohibits the adoption of new laws, but do not notice other rules of the basic law, which guarantee equality in rights and the principle of non-discriminatory on any basis-in particular and by type of activity. This should be combated and changed this approach.

What is the pensions today

We now have a minimum pension - UAH 2361, the average pension on April 1 after the next annual indexation - UAH 6341.

56.6% of pensioners receive less than UAH 5 thousand. For almost 400 thousand people, it is less than 3 thousand hryvnias, more than 3.3 million - receive from 3 to 4 thousand thousand UAH, 2.1 million from 4 to 5 thousand hryvnias. Compared to the actual subsistence minimum for the disabled, which is approaching 7 thousand hryvnias this year, these categories of pensioners are deeply beyond the poverty line. And only 1.5 million people exceed UAH 10 thousand. On average, their pension is UAH 15.6 thousand.

However, there is a category such as judges where the average pension payment exceeds UAH 100,000. There are prosecutors who can become retirees with disabilities at the age of 35, while a regular Ukrainian man to receive a minimum pension should be worked for 35 years and a woman-30 years.

Some pensions are increasing automatically, others - through the adoption of laws, others (as for the former military) - are established by government decisions that have not been adopted for a long time. And all this variety adds additional colors to the feeling of injustice in society.

Special pensions are different

It should be understood that the term "special specialty" should be used very correctly.

Such payments are received not only by conditional "elite" (former judges, prosecutors, people's deputies, government members), but also police officers (police) and other law enforcement agencies, former professional military, ordinary civil servants and local self -government employees, persons working in harmful production.

And their "special pensions" are not always tens and hundreds of thousands of hryvnias. The pension of former servicemen - 8.5 thousand UAH, war veterans - 8.3 thousand UAH, children of war - 5.7 thousand UAH, scientists - UAH 5.6 thousand. But it is also specialpine.

Billions of "holes" in the budget through court order

Among this variety of specialty pensioners, not everyone receives the payments provided by the current legislation. Not all have the opportunity (both in connection with age and health) to defend their rights in court. But about those who are still moving this way - some cases are really striking.

It should be noted that often court decisions are made under laws that are no longer in force and which have envisaged larger payments than in new laws. For example, in the 1991 Law on the Prosecutor's Office, although it became invalid after the deputies adopted a new Law on the Prosecutor's Office in 2015. It was the previous pension in 90% of the salary, not 60%. A similar rule was in the 1993 Civil Service Law, which was invalid in 2016.

In 2023, the courts made 240 thousand decisions in pension cases against the state, in 2024-more than 100 thousand debt by decisions of courts approached to UAH 100 billion. Moreover, decisions on certain categories of persons (prosecutors, judges, persons dismissed) cause an increase in the expenditures of the Pension Fund for payment of current pensions by approximately UAH 34.3 billion for 2025.

Another demonstrative fact. Special pension systems have a pure deficit. That is, every person who has a special park receives a lot more from the Pension Fund than paid deductions to him during his professional activity. For example, there is a court decision by which the prosecutor, with an average salary of UAH 13 thousand, received a pension of UAH 97 thousand. This is not just about all our other citizens who receive meager pensions by working.

What should be pensions in the future

The reform of special breeding is not only ripe, but even overripe. But it should not be carried out separately by itself, but solely as a component of "great pension reform", which we have never waited for all years of independence.

I expect to see from government officials a radically different approach to the pension provision of Ukrainians, which gradually but consistently and irreversibly eliminates the poverty of pensioners, not preserves and deepen it.

Currently, the Ministry of Social Policy proposals provide for retirement reform, at which pensions should be at least 60% of the average earnings of a person (by the way, as this corresponds to the average level in the EU). Referring to the standards of the European Social Charter and the Convention of the International Labor Organization, it is proposed:

• The solidarity pension was 40% of the average salary;
• Additionally pension on the storage system - 20%;
• Additional pension systems from employers in the form of a professional pension are possible - 10%.

I hope that the reform of the pension system will be a harmonious part of a more global reform aimed at overcoming poverty: reforming the system of remuneration, the employment market aimed at stimulating the creation of not abandoned, but high-paying jobs, deduction of wages-regardless of work. Because it is impossible to overcome the poverty of pensioners in a country where working people and/ or who receive salaries in envelopes will remain poor.