Chornobyl Pension Supplements for Residents of Former Enhanced Radioecological Control Zones

According to the circumstances of the case, a non-working pensioner affected by the Chornobyl disaster brought a claim against the Pension Fund of Ukraine seeking the calculation and payment of an additional pension supplement. She argued that she lived in a territory that had previously been classified as a zone of enhanced radioecological control and that, following legislative developments in 2018, persons in her situation were entitled to additional pension payments.

The claimant noted that the territory in which she lived had been excluded from the relevant zone of enhanced radioecological control as of 1 January 2015. Nevertheless, she argued that, following a 2018 decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine restoring the effect of certain provisions concerning additional payments to persons affected by radioactive contamination, she had acquired the right to such a pension supplement. The claimant and other persons interested in the outcome of the case also relied on the Constitutional Court’s decision, arguing that the change in the legal status of their place of residence should not affect the state’s constitutional obligations concerning social protection and pension payments.

The Supreme Court designated the dispute as a model case, meaning that its legal conclusions were intended to guide courts when considering other cases involving similar circumstances. The relevant characteristics of the model case can be summarised as follows.

Defendant: the relevant territorial authority of the Pension Fund of Ukraine.

The claimant:

• is a person affected by the Chornobyl disaster;
• resides in a territory that, before 1 January 2015, was classified as a zone of enhanced radioecological control;
• is a non-working pensioner.

The subject matter of the dispute concerned the calculation and payment of an additional pension supplement to non-working pensioners residing in territories affected by radioactive contamination.

Following amendments to Ukrainian legislation, zones of enhanced radioecological control were removed from the statutory classification of territories affected by radioactive contamination. As a consequence, persons residing in territories that had previously belonged to this category ceased to be treated as residents of a relevant radioactive contamination zone for the purpose of certain special pension supplements.

The key question before the Supreme Court was whether the subsequent restoration of legislative provisions concerning additional pension payments could give rise to entitlement for persons whose place of residence had ceased to have the required legal status before those provisions became effective again.

When deciding the case, the Supreme Court considered the relationship between the restoration of social guarantees and the legal status of the territory in which the claimant lived. The Court noted that the territory had ceased to be classified as a zone of enhanced radioecological control in 2015, whereas the relevant legal developments concerning the pension supplement occurred in 2018.

Accordingly, when the provisions concerning the additional pension payment became applicable, the claimant’s place of residence no longer had the legal status required for entitlement to that supplement. The Court therefore concluded that the claimant and other persons in equivalent circumstances were not entitled to have the additional pension payment calculated and paid solely on the basis that their territories had previously been classified as zones of enhanced radioecological control.

In summary, following the legislative changes that removed zones of enhanced radioecological control from the classification of radioactively contaminated territories as of 1 January 2015, residence in a territory that previously had such status does not, by itself, establish entitlement to a special pension supplement introduced or restored at a later date. The legal status of the person and the territory during the relevant period is therefore essential when determining entitlement to additional Chornobyl-related pension payments.