Pregnancy and childbirth: their impact on future pension
The Pension Fund has determined whether periods of pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare are taken into account when calculating the insurance period for a pension. This issue is relevant for many women who plan to take a well-deserved vacation.
Maternity leave
The duration of such leave is 126 calendar days: 70 days before childbirth and 56 after. In the event of complications, the birth of twins, or triplets, the period can be extended to 140 or even 180 days. During this leave, a woman receives an allowance equivalent to 100% of the average salary, which also serves as the basis for paying insurance premiums. Thus, this period is automatically included in the insurance period.
Childcare leave
After the end of maternity leave, the mother has the right to stay at home with the child until the child reaches the age of three. However, the registration of this time in the length of service depends on the terms of stay on maternity leave.
Before 2004, the time spent caring for a child up to three years was counted towards the length of service based on the birth certificate.
After 2004, only those periods when a woman received childcare benefits or continued to work and the employer paid contributions are counted towards the length of service.
All this data is stored in the register of insured persons, which allows for documentary confirmation of the length of service. If a woman worked during her maternity leave, the length of service is confirmed by the work book and data on contributions, and the fact of having a child is not taken into account.
Thus, women do not lose their length of service due to pregnancy and childbirth; however, there are important nuances that should be noted, given the differences between the periods before and after 2004.
The Pension Fund of Ukraine also reminds that upon retirement, each insured person can verify their length of service and accrued benefits in the register by using their electronic account on the Fund’s website.
