Ukraine's social policy minister vows not to raise retirement age for decade

Ukrainian Social Policy Minister Andriy Reva says the pension reform implemented in Ukraine has made it possible to postpone an increase in the retirement age for Ukrainians, at least for another decade.

"According to demographers' forecasts, we'll have to revisit this issue in 10 years," the ministry's press service quoted Reva as saying.

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) insisted on an increase in the retirement age in Ukraine. At the same time, the Ukrainian government proposed a differentiated system of retirement, depending on pension insurance records. It is an innovative mechanism in international practice, the press service said.

"If I've worked for 35 years, I should be able to retire at the age of 60. My colleague [a person of the same age] has been working for 15 years. Why should we all retire at 60? I have worked more, so I've been exhausted more. Therefore, I must retire earlier, as my age of decrepitude comes earlier. He has not worked so long. So he should retire later," Reva said.

It was not difficult to convince the IMF that such an approach was right, because the ministry provided relevant figures and calculations, he added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the bill on pension reform in Ukraine was adopted on October 3, 2017, and entered into force on October 11, 2017. According to the law, the size of the pension of each citizen is calculated based on a new formula and depends on the pension insurance record, as well as rate of wages during in the length of service.

In early March 2018, the Social Policy Ministry within the pension reform announced its plans to introduce legislative changes so that when calculating pensions, the length of service prevailed over the wages, thereby increasing pension fees for people with longer employment periods but smaller wages.