Assistance in recalculating pensions based on length of service

In 2022, Polina* was forced to leave her hometown of Shchastia, Luhansk Oblast, and move to the city of Sumy.

While living in Sumy, she reached retirement age and applied for an old-age pension. Unfortunately, the Pension Fund of Ukraine (PFU) unreasonably failed to include in her insurance record the period of Polina's training as a telegraph operator at a technical school in Luhansk in the 1980s, which affected the amount of her pension.

For legal assistance in resolving her pension issue, Polina turned to a lawyer from the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights. The lawyer helped to build a strategy for protecting the right to a pension, prepared a lawsuit and accompanied the woman at all further stages of the case.

The court recognized the Pension Fund's decision as unlawful and ordered to include the period of study in the total insurance record, recalculate and pay the pension, taking into account previously unpaid amounts, starting from the date of the pension award.

Thus, in February of this year, the pensioner began receiving the recalculated pension after the court decision was enforced.

Legal aid in Sumy region is provided by the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights in cooperation with the Danish Refugee Council and with funding from the European Union's civil protection and humanitarian assistance.

Name changed.