The Pension Fund of Ukraine (PFU) has clarified the conditions under which the size of a future pension can increase by more than half — estimated by the fund to be an increase of approximately 54%. According to RBC-Ukraine citing the PFU, this refers to supplements for additional service length and a high earnings coefficient accumulated throughout a person's working life. According to specialists, the maximum bonus is available to those who continue to work after reaching retirement age and fully pay the single social contribution (SSC).
How the Service Length Bonus is Formed
The main factor, according to PFU data, is service length that exceeds the minimum required. For each year of work after reaching retirement age, the state calculates an additional percentage to the main pension amount. If a person continued labor activity and fully paid the SSC, the bonus can be maximized. It is precisely the combination of long service and regular contributions that provides an increase of more than 50%.
The Second Factor — Official Salary Level
The second important parameter is an official salary higher than the national average. The higher the earnings coefficient, the higher the final pension. The PFU emphasizes: all periods of work must be correctly reflected in the register. Errors in documents, missed months of SSC payment, or discrepancies in personal data can reduce the payout, even if the actual service length is significantly longer. Specialists advise checking service data in the electronic cabinet and, if necessary, submitting an application for clarification so as not to lose years of work and all legally provided bonuses.
Deferral Mechanics: 0.5% and 0.75% per Month
The Main Directorate of the PFU in Kirovohrad Oblast clarifies the mechanism: Ukrainians who have reached 60 years of age can choose not to apply for a pension immediately, but continue working and increase future payments. If the deferral is less than five years, for each full month of insurance service acquired after retirement age, a bonus of 0.5% of the main pension amount is provided; with a deferral of more than 60 months, the increase is 0.75% for each full month. Incomplete months are not included in the calculation. According to fund calculations, with a sufficiently long deferral — about six years — the main payout amount can increase by 54%.
Strict Requirements and Average Payout Size
Requirements for service length to retire at 60 and 63 will become stricter in just a few months: currently, 33 years of service is sufficient for timely processing, but next year 34 years will be required. There are currently about 10 million pensioners in Ukraine, and the average pension size is 7,387 UAH. Some workers — miners and other workers from List №1 who work full-time underground or in especially hazardous conditions — have the right to an increased minimum pension of 7,785 UAH. As lawyer Serhiy Lytvynenko previously explained, the pension is usually assigned from the day of application; an exception applies to those who applied to the PFU no later than three months after reaching retirement age — their payout is assigned from the day their right to it arose.
