On December 13 at 14:00, the Ukrainian Institute for the Future will host a roundtable entitled “Pension Fund of Ukraine. Three Years of Cooperation with Occupation Authorities“.

Participants:

MP Refat Chubarov, Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people; representatives of the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights; representatives of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine; representatives of the Ministry for Temporary Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine; representatives of the Crimean Prosecutor’s Office; UHHRU experts; representatives of international organizations, etc.

The event’s co-organizer is the Ukrainian Institute for the Future (+38 044 537 17 78)

Since the beginning of 2015, the Pension Fund of Ukraine on its own initiative and contrary to the current legislation changed the procedure for the assignment of a pension for internally displaced persons from Crimea. According to the new rules, when an IDP applies to receive a pension, PFU must send a request to the Crimean occupation authorities. The purpose of such a request is to receive a hard copy of pension case and information about the possibility of pension payments from the budget of the Russian Federation. Only after the receipt of the hard copy, a pension may be assigned, but not earlier than from the time when all the payments from the authorities of the occupation authorities cease. Because of these actions of the Pension Fund of Ukraine, authorities of the Russian Federation have already transferred personal data of more than 5000 Ukrainian citizens, along with a statement of the fact of their displacement and the address of residence on the controlled territory of Ukraine.

Such unlawful actions of PFU are likely aimed at finding grounds for minimizing pension payments or refusals to pay them to IDPs. However, at the same time, such actions of PFU can be understood as the recognition of the legality of the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation in Crimea, as well as the consequence of the illegal transfer of personal data of citizens of Ukraine and gross violation of rights to social protection. Heads of the Pension Fund provide no official comments on correspondence with the authorities of the occupation authorities.

The purpose of this roundtable is to draw the attention of government agencies and the public to problems in the field of pension provision and protection of personal data of IDPs, who moved from Crimea, as well as to bring the legislation of the Pension Fund of Ukraine into line with the legislation and introduce changes into policies of agencies of the Pension Fund in conditions of the armed conflict.

Address of the venue: Kyiv, 65, Honchara Str., 6th floor

Contact person: Hanna Rasamakhina (+38 099 793 64 18)