Pension or salary: prosecutors will have to choose
17 April 13:58
[kl] ANALYSIS
The Verkhovna Rada has passed a bill on pensions for prosecutors, thus depriving them of the opportunity to accrue pensions for their years of service in law enforcement. This was done to ensure social justice. Will it be possible to achieve it – I analyzed
The draft law proposes to amend the Law “On the Prosecutor’s Office” and, in fact, to deprive some prosecutors of their privileges, namely, additional cash payments. Thus, it is proposed to
- pensions for long service in accordance with Article 86 of the Law “On the Prosecutor’s Office” should be appointed and paid only after a person leaves office, and not during his or her work in the prosecutor’s office;
- prosecutors who have been determined to be disabled in accordance with the law shall be granted a disability pension in accordance with the Law “On Compulsory State Pension Insurance” – without additional benefits;
- appointment (recalculation) of pensions, payments, suspension and resumption of payments are carried out in accordance with this Law and the Law “On Compulsory State Pension Insurance”, and appeals against decisions are made in accordance with the Law “On Administrative Procedure”, taking into account the specifics defined by the said laws;
- a pension granted during work in positions that give the right to a pension or monthly lifetime allowance in accordance with this Law, the Laws “On Civil Service”, “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges”, etc., shall be paid in the amount calculated in accordance with the Law “On Compulsory State Pension Insurance”;
- the pension granted under this Article shall not be paid during work in positions that give the right to a pension/life allowance under special conditions;
- after dismissal from the positions that give the right to a pension in accordance with Article 86 of the Law “On the Prosecutor’s Office”, the pension will be resumed;
- every year starting from March 1, pensions are recalculated taking into account the growth of monetary incomes of the population and the consumer price index with the application of the relevant increase coefficient.
However, prosecutors still have some privileges :
- they were allowed to count time spent working in research and educational institutions of the Prosecutor General’s Office, military service, and half of the period of full-time study in higher legal education as part of the length of service that gives them the right to a pension.
High salaries and pensions to boot
That is, if earlier prosecutors could, while working in the prosecutor’s office, apply for a pension for length of service (usually with 20 years of service), and taking into account 5 years of study, after 15 years of work, they could become pensioners, receiving both a pension and a salary.
And if they also had a disability, the monthly payments could cause envy not only among MPs but also among some ministers.
In other words, prosecutors, in addition to preferential pension calculation, had a unique right to receive long-service pensions without leaving their jobs.
For example, the former head of the Khmelnytsky Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Oleksiy Oliynyk, who became involved in a scandal involving massive disability claims by regional prosecutors, received a monthly salary of 710,000 hryvnias, which included a pension. In 2023, he received UAH 1.81 million in salary (approximately UAH 151 thousand per month) and UAH 251.1 thousand in pension. And he is not the only one. With a high salary, there is also a considerable pension.
By the way, the Verkhovna Rada has long been “in favor” of prosecutors. on October 30 last year, it supported an amendment that canceled the salary increase for prosecutors in 2025, believing that they were not in need anyway. And the new law should establish uniform conditions for recalculating pensions, regardless of the law under which they are calculated for prosecutors.
The law will not save money
Social justice is long overdue. But the law does not have retroactive effect, so those who have already received pensions, including through the courts, will continue to receive them. But those who have not yet done so will not be able to do so after the law comes into force. But there will be few of them, and the Pension Fund will not save much money, says Andriy Reva, former Minister of Social Policy.
“In fact, according to this law, the pensions already paid to working prosecutors will not go anywhere – they will not have to resign from the authorities, choosing between salary and pension. Only those who have not yet had time to apply for a pension will be out of luck – they will already be deprived of this right. By the way, prosecutors were the only ones who could receive a pension while working, while others were prohibited from doing so. This bill puts them on the same footing as everyone else – they are deprived of their privileges,” said
[Kommersant] Andriy Reva.
However, one should not expect significant savings for the Pension Fund. There are few prosecutors in Ukraine – about 6,000 people. But it has been necessary to organize this sphere for a long time.
As of the beginning of April, there were 10.33 million pensioners registered in Ukraine, almost 177 thousand less than a month earlier. In 2025, the average pension in Ukraine will be 5789 UAH per month, which is about 128 euros (the exchange rate may change).
At the same time, 26% of pensioners (about 400 thousand people) receive less than UAH 3,000. Almost one in three is below the poverty line. And this is after the indexation of pensions in March of this year.
According to Prime Minister Shmyhal, pensions increased by 11.5% for more than 10 million Ukrainians.
The minimum increase was UAH 100, the majority received an increase of UAH 500, and the maximum indexation was UAH 1500 for those who already received a pension of more than UAH 13 thousand.
Author: Alla Dunina
