Since January 2025, new restrictions on special pensions have come into effect in Ukraine. The Cabinet of Ministers, by its Resolution No. 1 of January 3, introduced reduction coefficients to limit extremely high pensions, which previously could reach hundreds of thousands of hryvnias. According to the Law “On the State Budget for 2025”, pension payments exceeding ten subsistence minimums (23,610 UAH) are subject to reduction. This rule applies to those “special pensioners” who have not participated in the defense of the country after 2014.
This primarily concerns prosecutors, individual officials, security forces and the military. In total, the new restrictions affected 17.7 thousand pensioners. However, the attempt to reduce pension costs resulted in a wave of lawsuits - hundreds of special pensioners are filing lawsuits, demanding the restoration of payments in full. As of March 27, the Unified State Register already had more than 840 court decisions, in most of which the Cabinet of Ministers' resolution on reduction coefficients was canceled.
Former prosecutor of the Dnipropetrovsk region Viktor Matviychuk, who previously obtained a pension of 95 thousand hryvnias through the court, filed a lawsuit when in January he received only 36 thousand. However, he was denied: the court indicated that the application of coefficients is a new legal dispute, not related to the previous decision to increase the pension.
Other former officials are more successful. For example, in March, the court canceled the reduction coefficients for former deputy prosecutor of Poltava region Oleksandr Ozeryansky, returning him the full amount of his pension – 72 thousand UAH instead of 33 thousand.
There are other examples, such as the case of Volodymyr Ridchenko, a former prosecutor from Rivne. He received a court decision to increase his pension to UAH 63,000 a few years ago, and is now trying to appeal its reduction due to new coefficients. The court refused him, again noting that this is a different issue – a new dispute.
While some special pensioners are fighting to restore their privileges, there are those who were not affected by the restrictions. These are approximately 7,000 people - mostly military personnel with combat experience, who were left with high pensions without any restrictions.
However, the most “untouchable” category remains judges. Thanks to the decisions of the Constitutional Court, they have retained the right to a “lifetime pension” without any cuts. Currently, the largest payment from the Pension Fund is UAH 390,000, and according to journalists, it is received by the former Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Natalia Shaptala.
Interestingly, judges' contributions to the Pension Fund are the same as those of other citizens - 22% of the single social contribution. However, unlike ordinary Ukrainians, who can count on 30% of their previous salary, judges receive up to 90%.
The paradox is that those who have paid the least into the system often get the most out of it. Although cutting special pensions could save the Pension Fund budget UAH 1.3 billion per year – on the scale of all expenses, this is not that much, but it would be a step towards a fairer system.
And now, officials, prosecutors, and judges continue to fight for their hundreds of thousands of hryvnias, while the rest of Ukrainians survive on the minimum wage and silently pay taxes.
