New approaches to identifying pensioners and providing individual supplements: implementation of the recommendations of the Accounting Chamber

The government has improved the mechanism for mandatory identification of pension recipients who are in temporarily occupied territories and abroad, established a list of conditions for establishing additional payments/increases to pensions for residents of mountain settlements and radioactive contamination zones, a mechanism for monitoring their provision, and grounds for termination. These are the results of the implementation of the recommendations of the Accounting Chamber, provided following the results of the first audit of the effectiveness of the Pension Fund of Ukraine (PFU).

As a reminder, the audit identified a number of systemic problems that affected the stability of the pension system of Ukraine under martial law, in particular, gaps in the legislative regulation of payments to certain categories of pensioners, mass registration at one place of residence in mountainous settlements and in areas of radioactive contamination to obtain increased payments.

The risks of uneconomical use of funds due to non-standardization of mandatory physical identification of certain categories of pensioners were also identified. Thus, since the beginning of the large-scale invasion of the Russian Federation and for more than 2.5 years, more than 800 thousand pensioners have received pensions in temporarily occupied territories and in areas of active hostilities without physical identification. Approximately 7.7% of all annual expenditures for pension payments were spent on pension payments to these citizens in 2024.

- In order to increase the efficiency of the use of PFU funds and improve the systems of pension payments for TOT,  the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a resolution providing for mandatory annual identification of pensioners and determining the grounds for terminating their payments in case of failure to pass. The Cabinet also made changes to the procedure for the Pension Fund's interaction with banks, obliging banks to inform the PFU about pensioners undergoing physical identification, as well as ensuring the possibility of returning to the PFU the balances of funds from recipients' accounts on which no transactions have been made for over a year.

- The PFU has already developed technical requirements for the implementation of video identification of pensioners using artificial intelligence technologies, and has also introduced an online service for pensioners "My Identification".

- Regarding additional payments to persons living or working in mountainous settlements, the Government has introduced a mechanism for their implementation by a separate decision, in particular, it has determined the list of conditions that give the right to establish additional payments, grounds for terminating additional payments, and a mechanism for controlling these payments.

- Regarding payments to pensioners living in territories, contaminated as a result of the Chernobyl accident, the Government has established a list of conditions for establishing pension increases for such persons. In turn, the Ministry of Social Policy has introduced a mechanism for conducting checks on the actual place of residence of persons who apply for or receive a pension increase, but have encountered a lack of appropriate documents in certain territorial communities. In order to finalize the implemented mechanism, temporary commissions will work in such communities until September to establish the necessary information.

The Accounting Chamber will continue to monitor the implementation of the recommendations provided and will continue to inform the public about the status of their implementation.

Previously, the Accounting Chamber's report on the results of the efficiency audit on the topic "Stability of the Pension Fund of Ukraine under martial law" also considered and took note during the meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Social Policy and Protection of Veterans' Rights.

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