A fair approach to determining the amount of pensions in Ukraine leaves much to be desired, if not more and more strict. Unjustified interpretation and, as a result, incorrect application of legal norms by the bodies of the Pension Fund of Ukraine (hereinafter - PFU ) has already become their principle and "talk of the town". The same is the case with regard to the issue of including in the salary of a civil servant, which is used to assign a pension, the amounts of indexation of wages and amounts of material assistance (for solving social problems and for health improvement). Not including these amounts lowers the initial data and, accordingly, the amount of the pension.
A Ukrainian pensioner who has served the state is, like the rest of the country's pensioners, a “happy” owner of a “small” pension. Therefore, an additional reduction in this monthly salary becomes a painful blow for the pensioner.
We asked the law firm " SSG GROUP ", where, as you know, the best lawyers in Moscow with a request to comment and, applying the correct legislation, to answer the question: are the amounts of indexation and material assistance included in the salary for the appointment of a pension to a civil servant ?
According to the PFU, being implemented, Article 33 of the Law of Ukraine " On Civil Service " (hereinafter referred to as the Law on Service) does not include the amount of indexation and material assistance in salaries. You should not agree with this.
A civil servant's pension is assigned on the basis of his salary, from the amount of which contributions to pension (and later to social) insurance were paid (part 1 of article 37 of the Law on Service). According to Art. 2 of the Law of Ukraine " On Remuneration " (hereinafter - the Law on Remuneration), wages in Ukraine contain in its structure:
- basic and additional salaries;
- other compensation and incentive payments.
Based on the content of Art. 2 of the Law on Pay, in addition to the salary of an employee, the salary also includes guarantee, compensation and material payments. Art. 66 of the Law of Ukraine " On Pension Provision " stipulates that earnings (used for calculating pensions) include all salaries for which the pension tax was charged. Art. 41 of the Law of Ukraine " On Compulsory State Pension Insurance " defines the obligatory inclusion in the "pension" salary of all payments from which insurance contributions were actually paid.
Thus, payments that are not even included in the salary structure should be included in the "pension" wages. It is only necessary to have the fact of payment of the corresponding contribution. From this we correctly deduce and conclude: indexation and material assistance for solving social problems and for health improvement are included in the earnings of a civil servant used to determine the size of a pension. The norms of special (pension) legislation prevail in the considered issue and are subject to application.
