Practical legal assistance in action

Maksym turned to the Tenth of April NGO, a partner DRC of the organization, because his brother Yevhen has a group 3 disability and has been undergoing constant treatment in a medical facility in Mykolaiv region for three years. Maksym often visits his brother and keeps in touch with him.

In August 2022, the man stopped receiving a disability pension, and due to his health condition and active hostilities in the Mykolaiv region, he was unable to resolve the issue of resuming his pension payments on his own.

Maksym applied to the Pension Fund of Ukraine, where he received a response that the pension payment was suspended due to the fact that according to the State Register of Civil Status Acts of Citizens on Death, Yevhen was considered deceased since December 2021.

The state civil registration authorities reported that Yevhen's death was registered on the basis of a medical death certificate provided by the police as part of criminal proceedings.

Maksym was informed by the National Police that his brother had allegedly died in a car accident in Mykolaiv, on the basis of which the medical death certificate was issued.

Maksym tried to contact lawyers, but did not have the means to pay for their services. At that time, Yevhen did not receive any payments and was actually dependent on his brother.

Iryna Savchenko, a lawyer with the Tenth of April NGO, suggested filing a petition with the court in a separate proceeding to cancel the death certificate.

The complexity of the situation was that in order to prepare a statement to the court, it was necessary to receive official responses from state authorities and services regarding the situation with Yevhen and the fact that he was undergoing permanent inpatient treatment outside the city.

After receiving all the documents, Iryna prepared a statement to the court and provided ongoing legal support for the case. By a court decision, the death record was canceled. The lawyer will continue to provide legal support to Yevhen on the resumption of pension payments, as well as payment of pension arrears from August 2022.

Receiving free legal aid was made possible through the cooperation of the NGO “Tenth of April” with the Danish Refugee Council within the framework of a project funded by the generous support of the American people through the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance of the United States Agency for International Development.