Incorrect Calculation of Insurance Record by the Pension Fund of Ukraine

One of the most common reasons for refusing to grant a pension is the incorrect calculation of a person’s insurance record by the Pension Fund of Ukraine.

In particular, the Pension Fund may exclude certain periods of employment from a person’s insurance record and, as a result, refuse to grant a pension due to an allegedly insufficient period of insurance.

Unfortunately, Tetiana Mykolaivna Burlaka faced exactly this situation. The Pension Fund refused to include in her insurance record a period of employment at a collective farm, as well as certain periods of employment after 2000 due to the non-payment of insurance contributions.

With regard to her employment at the collective farm, the Pension Fund stated that this period had been included in her pensionable service according to the number of workdays actually completed. However, this did not correspond to the circumstances of the case because, according to the documents submitted, Tetiana Mykolaivna had worked more than the established minimum number of workdays. Therefore, this entire period should have been included in her pensionable service in accordance with the entries in her employment record book.

As for the periods of employment after 2000, the Pension Fund stated that they had been included in the insurance record only to the extent corresponding to the insurance contributions actually paid. Our legal position was that an employee cannot be held responsible for an employer’s failure to pay mandatory insurance contributions. Therefore, the relevant periods of employment should be included in the insurance record in full, regardless of the amount of contributions actually paid by the employer.

The court agreed with our arguments and issued a judgment ordering the Pension Fund to include the disputed periods in Tetiana Mykolaivna’s insurance record in full and to grant her a pension. Importantly, the court ordered that the pension be granted from the date on which she originally submitted her pension application in September 2022, even though the court judgment was issued only in September 2023.

As a result, the Pension Fund was also required to calculate and pay Tetiana Mykolaivna the pension arrears for the entire year during which she had been waiting for her pension rights to be restored.