Human rights activists help displaced people get their pensions back

At the end of April 2016, the lawyers of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights were contacted by a displaced person B. She left Makiivka, Donetsk region, for Hlukhiv, Sumy region, in order to avoid the negative consequences of the armed conflict, manifestations of violence and mass violations of human rights. All this has been observed in the east of the country for the second year in a row.

The 87-year-old woman left in Makiivka virtually all the property that she had acquired over the years of her life. Is it worth emphasizing that in her new place of residence her only means of subsistence was a pension? But the displaced person was deprived of this money without any reason.

Where did the pension go?

Like most displaced persons, B. was forced to leave her own home in the fall of 2014. From the area of ​​the anti-terrorist operation, the woman left for Glukhov, Sumy region. Having moved to the free territory of Ukraine, she registered with the Main Department of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Sumy region – the Department of Pension Provision for Military Personnel. The pensioner refused monthly targeted assistance, the so-called “resettlement money”, explaining this action by saying that she had enough pension, and let those people who need it more receive this money.

Since November 2014, the pensioner has been receiving a pension steadily. The amounts due for payment were transferred to her card account at the bank. But in April 2016, for unknown reasons, the monthly pension “never arrived” in the woman’s account. This was a complete surprise for her. The lack of pension provision endangered the life of the elderly woman, made it impossible to provide for her needs as a person. First of all, this concerns the elementary – buying food and renting housing.

From communication with employees of the Pension Fund, as well as from messages contained on the official website of this institution, the woman had suspicions that the non-payment of the pension could have occurred due to the decision to suspend it. However, objectively, she was not aware of the adoption of such a decision, any written information on this matter was never sent to the pensioner by the competent authority. Moreover, the employees of the Pension Fund refused to provide information about the existence of such a decision in a telephone conversation.

She turned to lawyers for help

Given all this, the pensioner was forced to turn to lawyers from the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, who helped her make a written request to the authorized body. In this request, on behalf of B. Pension Fund, they asked to provide the following information:

1) the number and date of the decision of the head of the department for pension provision for military personnel and certain other categories of citizens of the Main Department of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Sumy region on the termination of pension payments – if such a decision was made;

2) if such a decision does not exist – registration data (name, number, date) of the administrative document of the Main Department of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Sumy region, on the basis of which the pension payment was terminated;

3) the date from which the accrual and payment of the pension were terminated.

On April 28, 2016, the pensioner received a letter from the Main Department of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Sumy Oblast, which stated that indeed, the pension is not accrued, because her IDP certificate has been canceled. Allegedly, the woman returned to Makiivka, to the temporarily occupied territory, and can no longer receive money in Hlukhiv. Information about her “return” from the Unified Information Database on Internally Displaced Persons was provided to the Pension Fund by the Department of Social Protection of the Population of the Sumy Oblast State Administration. And there is no separate decision to terminate her pension payment, which would have been made by the heads of the Main Department of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Sumy Oblast. Nevertheless, the woman still does not receive money.

We are waiting for the court’s decision

The next step taken by the lawyers of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights was to draw up an administrative claim to declare the actions unlawful and to order the renewal of the pension. It set out all the circumstances of this unfortunate situation, stating that there are no grounds for terminating the pension payment to the citizen of Ukraine B.. At the same time as the claim, a statement was also written on behalf of the pensioner for exemption from paying the court fee, because this is simply impossible for her at the moment.

The project “Advocacy and Legal Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons” is implemented by the Danish Refugee Council in Ukraine with funding from the European Commission’s Department for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) in 20 regions of Ukraine. The project partner in Chernihiv, Sumy and Poltava regions is the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights.