Pensioners have the opportunity to recover lost payments: what needs to be done by April

Citizens living in temporarily occupied territories or internally displaced persons have been given additional time to submit information about non-receipt of pension payments from Russia. Minister of Social Policy, Family and Unity Denis Ulyutin confirmed this information on the department’s official platform.

Pensioners who successfully passed physical identification but did not have time to inform the Pension Fund promptly for various reasons will be able to issue a corresponding notification until April 2026. During this period, payments will continue as usual.

The state took these measures to prevent payment losses for people who encountered bureaucratic delays due to difficult circumstances.

After the outbreak of hostilities, many Ukrainian pensioners found themselves in a difficult situation. Some of them remained in the occupied territories without access to Ukrainian state institutions, others were forced to urgently leave, often without documents, which complicated their notification of status.

Under existing rules, pensioners from the temporarily occupied territories must confirm that they do not receive payments from Russia and undergo physical identification. If these conditions are not met, the Pension Fund has the right to suspend payments temporarily. However, many citizens could not comply with these requirements due to war, communication problems, or health conditions.

In response, the government decided to resume and extend payments until April 2026 for those who did not submit a notification on time for objective reasons. During this period, it will be necessary to submit a statement confirming non-receipt of pensions from the occupational structures to avoid future interruptions in payments.

“We took into account the really difficult conditions in which pensioners find themselves, and we do not want them to lose their payments due to bureaucracy,” Ulyutin emphasized.

Who should submit a notification to the Pension Fund by April 1, 2026? This applies to those pensioners who underwent physical identification from January 1, 2025, to February 1, 2026. During this time, their payments will continue to be made in full. If the pension payment was stopped in January, it will resume in February, taking into account the missed period.

The situation with the pension cases of those who still indicate their place of residence in the temporarily occupied territories remains difficult. If such a person has moved, but has not informed the Pension Fund about their new location or has not confirmed that they do not receive a pension from the occupation authorities, their payments may be blocked until the circumstances are clarified.

For such cases, an extension of the deadlines for submitting documents and an individual approach during consideration are provided. The minister also clarified the rules for internally displaced persons: if they have transferred their pensions to the territory under Ukrainian control, repeated physical identification is not necessary.

However, the freedom to inform the Pension Fund of non-receipt of Russian payments still prevails to avoid a possible suspension of accruals.

The state has offered several ways to submit an application and confirm data, including remote registration via the Pension Fund’s web portal or mobile application, in-person contact with the service center, and mailing documents from abroad.

Previously, it was also reported on possible reasons for the suspension of pensions and on changes to the procedure for assigning state assistance in Ukraine.