"Crimea SOS" shared tips on how to stop pension deductions from the accounts of IDPs or to resume their payments.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has yet to approve the final procedure for restoring pension payments for IDP pensioners.

This is reported by “Crimea SOS”.

At the end of November 2024, the government adopted amendments that allow for the deduction of funds from the accounts of displaced pensioners at JSC “Oschadbank” to the Pension Fund of Ukraine.

According to Article 40 of the Law “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2025,” funds will be deducted on January 1 of each year only in two cases:

• if there have been no transactions on the bank accounts, meaning the pensioner has not withdrawn cash, made purchases, or transferred
• funds in the last 12 months;
• if such pensioners have not undergone physical identification within six months.

Crimean human rights defenders remind that, according to the government decree, pension accounts for such internally displaced persons were opened only at Oschadbank, so there are no corresponding unused funds in other banks.

At the same time, funds from Oschadbank accounts will not be seized if there is an arrest or other encumbrance on those accounts, or if the law prohibits the transfer of the respective funds for other reasons.

Therefore, starting January 1, 2025, all pensioners who registered as IDPs before February 24, 2022, must:

• Undergo physical identification every six months.
• Conduct at least one transaction per year from their bank account opened at JSC “Oschadbank” (cash withdrawal, cashless transactions, or transfers).

“Crimea SOS” lawyer Viktor Vuyka notes that, according to the law, a pensioner who has worked for the benefit of their country for many years and has paid contributions to the pension fund cannot be deprived of their right to a pension solely on the grounds that they have not used pension payments for a calendar year.

If funds have been withdrawn from the account due to non-compliance with the requirements stipulated in Article 40 of the Law of Ukraine “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2025,” the pensioner can appeal to Oschadbank or the Pension Fund of Ukraine to restore payments by undergoing the appropriate verification procedure.

Also read: How IDP pensioners can undergo the identification procedure to receive their pension

However, it is important to note that the final procedure for restoring pension payments has not yet been approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. Consequently, until the Cabinet approves the procedure for returning these pension payments, IDP pensioners will have to resort to legal action.

“How is it possible in a legal state to deprive a person of property simply because they do not use it?” – Vuyka wonders.

Recall that recently, a coalition of leading human rights organizations in Ukraine presented comprehensive recommendations to the authorities for protecting the rights of those affected by Russian aggression in 2025.

The coalition urged the authorities to reconsider relevant legislation to prevent disproportionate and unlawful restrictions on the rights of IDPs.

The latest example of such a restriction was cited as Article 40 of the Law “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2025,” which provides for the return of funds placed in IDP accounts to the Pension Fund of Ukraine if those funds have not been used for more than a year.

This action by the state has been classified by the coalition's human rights defenders as an unlawful deprivation of property rights for the displaced, and they called for the elimination of this violation, taking into account the arguments defined in the coalition's position.