Pension indexation will become a mere formality: what additional payments will await pensioners

In the draft 2026 state budget, the government plans to index pensions. The subsistence minimum is scheduled to increase by 9.9%, which, in turn, will affect minimum pension payments; however, it is unclear whether this measure will really be a salvation for older people.

The head of the Finance Committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Danylo Getmantsev, emphasized that the planned increase looks more like a formality than real assistance. According to calculations, the minimum pension will increase by only 234 hryvnias – from 2,361 to 2,595 hryvnias. At the same time, the actual subsistence minimum exceeds 7,000 hryvnias, as a result of which pensioners will receive only a third of the amount needed to meet basic needs.

The situation is so complicated that more than 400,000 pensioners receive payments lower than the official subsistence minimum. About seven million citizens live on incomes that are half or even three times lower than what is needed for everyday life.

The financing of the pension system is also a cause for concern. The 2026 budget includes 251 billion hryvnias for pensions, while the Ministry of Social Policy estimates the actual need at 280 billion hryvnias or more. Thus, the budget has a deficit of almost 30 billion hryvnias, which may leave insufficient funds to increase payments to veterans and Chernobyl survivors.

To add to this problem, the government’s decision to finance special pensions through a solidarity system will reduce the budget by 20 billion hryvnia, money that could be used to help ordinary pensioners.

The law requires indexation to account for inflation and wage growth, but the actual figures do not meet these requirements. In 2022, pensions increased by 14%; in 2023, by almost 20%; in subsequent years, the growth was lower—7.96% in 2024 and 11.5% in 2025. At the same time, inflation exceeds 13%, and salaries grow by more than 20%.

Thus, pensioners are once again faced with the depreciation of their incomes during the promised improvement. People’s deputies are already proposing changes, including setting the minimum pension at 4,700 hryvnias and reforming the special pension system so it is not financed at the expense of ordinary citizens.

At the moment, the situation suggests that in 2026, millions of Ukrainian pensioners may find themselves in difficult conditions, facing price increases and modest allowances that will not be able to solve the problem of poverty.