The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmitry Lubinets published an alarming message in the Telegram: IDP pensioners, of whom more than 1 are registered. 3 million were massively left without pensions in January. It was with numerous appeals from citizens about the termination of pensions by the Pension Fund of Ukraine that the year 2026 began.
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In order to receive a pension, they had to go through the procedure of confirming the fact that they do not receive a pension from the Russian Federation authorities. This had to be done as follows: go to the PFU web portal, log in to your personal account, using the qualified electronic signature “Diya”. Signature" That is, pensioners were practically forced to register or physically go to the Pension Fund - and this against the backdrop of bad weather conditions, power outages and other troubles in the form of poor health or physical incapacity.
“It turns out that payments were suspended because the person did not pass identification on the Pension Fund website. Not because I violated anything. Not because I lost my right. But because the state did not convey clear information to people that they need to undergo additional identification and confirmation.
Thousands of pensioners found themselves in this situation: people learned about the new requirements only when pension payments simply did not arrive in their accounts. As a result, there were queues, panic and the work of the Pension Fund bodies was actually paralyzed..
The problem is not the people. The problem is that the state’s responsibility to check information was transferred to the pensioners themselves, without even properly notifying them about it! "
Indeed, for most of these people, pensions are the only source of existence. And the state is obliged to guarantee this right, and not make it dependent on whether the pensioner has managed to understand the new certificate or electronic procedure.
On January 31, the Ministry of Social Policy responded to Lubinets’ request and noted that “The information about the termination of payments for 1.3 million pensioners is not true.”.
“As of January 1, 2026, pension payments were suspended for 337 thousand pensioners who: did not pass physical identification before December 31, 2025; did not report that they do not receive a pension from the Russian Federation,” says a note from the Ministry of Social Policy in a Telegram on Saturday.
They noted that since the beginning of 2026, some of their pensions have been restored and paid in January, and more than 48 thousand people will receive restored pensions in February.
“Currently, without confirmed information, there remain cases in whose pension files the settlements on BOT are still indicated as addresses for receiving payments, or who left BOT and did not report non-receipt of payments,” the ministry explained.
It is separately noted that internally displaced persons (IDPs) who transferred their pension to territory controlled by Ukraine are not required to undergo identification, but must report non-receipt of payments from the Russian Federation.
Among those deprived of their pensions in January were pensioners who left the occupied territories back in 2014 and never went there. But in 2026 they decided to ask them about receiving (non-receiving) a Russian pension.
The demands of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights speak not so much about how many people have lost their only source of funding, but about communication that was so formal that many people of respectable age could simply not know about anything.
“The rights of millions of citizens are under threat due to ridiculous bureaucratic procedures and failed information efforts..
My position is simple: people should not prove to the state what the state can verify itself. People cannot be forced to undergo new complex procedures if the state already has IDP registries, data on place of residence and all the necessary databases.
Many pensioners do not have smartphones, there is no " How were they supposed to find out the information they needed How to get verified? Apparently no one thought about it!
That is why I appealed to the Government with a demand not to complicate people’s lives, but to simplify the procedure: extend the confirmation period, properly inform all pensioners and use existing state registers instead of sending people through new verification circles,” Lubinets noted..
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Let us remind you that the PFU explained that since March 2025, a new procedure for paying pensions has been in force for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and citizens of Ukraine who are in temporarily occupied territories (TOT) or abroad.
" 02. 2022, can receive their pensions to the account of any authorized bank of Ukraine.
Citizens abroad or at BOT must undergo physical identification - annually before December 31,"
The Fund added that if pensioners live on BOT, they must carry out at least one financial transaction from their account every six months, provided that they have not undergone identification during these six months.
“Such requirements are established to confirm that a pensioner living outside the territory controlled by Ukraine (for example, in the Great Patriotic War or abroad) is alive, and it is he who receives funds from his card,” the PFU explained.