How to Buy Missing Insurance Record for a Pension in Ukraine

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they want to retire and live on the pension they have been counting on. However, one of the most important issues arises when the person’s insurance record is calculated. In some cases, a person discovers that they do not have enough insurance record required for retirement.

Fortunately, Ukrainian legislation provides mechanisms that make it possible to purchase additional insurance record for a pension under certain conditions.

The amount of insurance record required for an old-age pension depends on the year in which a person reaches the relevant retirement age. Ukrainian pension legislation provides different insurance-record requirements for retirement at the ages of 60, 63 and 65. Therefore, before purchasing additional insurance record, it is advisable to determine exactly how much insurance record has already been accumulated and how much is missing for pension entitlement.

One of the available mechanisms is voluntary participation in the system of compulsory state social insurance. In cases provided for by law, a person may pay the Unified Social Contribution (USC) for periods during which no insurance contributions were paid. Special rules apply when contributions are paid retroactively for previous periods.

The cost of purchasing insurance record depends on the minimum insurance contribution applicable under Ukrainian legislation and on the method used to pay contributions. Therefore, the exact cost of purchasing one month or one year of insurance record in Ukraine should be calculated as of the date of payment rather than based on outdated figures from previous years.

It is also important to distinguish between purchasing insurance record for periods in which no contributions were paid at all and making an additional payment for a month in which contributions were paid but their amount was lower than the minimum insurance contribution. If the amount paid for a particular month was below the statutory minimum, only a proportional part of that month may be included in the insurance record unless the required additional payment is made.

Information about insurance contributions and the periods already included in a person’s insurance record can be checked using the data contained in the register of insured persons. In particular, a person may obtain an OK-5 certificate and check which months have been included in the insurance record and whether there are periods for which contributions are missing or insufficient.

Before purchasing additional insurance record, it is therefore advisable to:

• check the total amount of insurance record already accumulated;
• determine which periods have not been included;
• establish how much additional insurance record is required for retirement;
• calculate the cost of paying contributions for the missing period;
• choose the appropriate method of voluntary payment provided by Ukrainian legislation.

Depending on the chosen procedure, the person may need to provide identification documents and information from the personalised accounting system. The exact procedure and required documents depend on whether the person intends to make current voluntary contributions, pay contributions for previous periods or make an additional payment for months in which the contribution was below the minimum amount.

Thus, if you do not have enough insurance record to qualify for a pension in Ukraine, this does not necessarily mean that you must wait several more years before retirement. In certain circumstances, the missing insurance record can be purchased. However, before making any payments, it is important to calculate the exact amount of missing insurance record and determine whether purchasing it is financially reasonable in your particular case.