January 2019

14Jan

These Ukrainians have a pension awaiting. But they literally must cross a minefield to get it.

Ukraine — Antonina and Leonid know where to find their state pension money: an office just about a mile down the road. The problem is it is on the other side of the front lines of eastern Ukraine’s nearly five-year-old war. The couple’s home falls within the breakaway territories controlled by rebels loyal to Moscow. The Ukrainian bureaucrats handling pensions and other affairs are across the line in areas run by Kiev’s pro-Western government. So Antonina and Leonid join...

January 14, 2019
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August 2018

15Aug

EBA calls for second-level pension scheme in Ukraine

The European Business Association (EBA) has called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to place pressure on Ukraine to introduce a second-level pension scheme. “It is important to make effective and qualitative steps that will reduce the deficit in the pension system,” said the EBA in a statement. “In Ukraine, there are about 12 million people of retirement age and the pension deficit is more than 200 billion hryvnia (6.3 billion euros). Given the steady growth...

August 15, 2018
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January 2018

19Jan

IMF hails pension reform in Ukraine, notes some shortcomings

IMF Communications Director Gerry Rice said this at a briefing in Washington on Thursday, January 18, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "Ukraine recently adopted the pension law," he said, adding that it introduces some important provisions to modernize the pension system in Ukraine. At the same time, he said, pension reform "has some shortcomings that undermine incentives for people to work longer and contribute to the [pension] system." In this regard, Rice said that such changes do not "fully ensure a fair and...

January 19, 2018
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October 2017

04Oct

Ukraine parliament approves heavily amended pension reform

The Ukrainian parliament approved pension reforms on Tuesday aimed at easing pressure from a pensions deficit of more than $5 billion while also raising the minimum pension. Passing laws to put the buckling pension system on a sustainable footing is a key requirement for the next loan tranche from the International Monetary Fund. But last week a senior World Bank official said the bank and the IMF were concerned about the hundreds of amendments that have been added to the...

October 4, 2017
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September 2017

22Sep

Ukraine Pension Reform Changes Worry World Bank, IMF

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are concerned about amendments to pending pension reform legislation needed to unlock further funding under a $17.5 billion (£12.92 billion) IMF programme, the World Bank's Ukraine director said on Friday. A draft law to put the buckling pension system on a sustainable footing passed a first reading in parliament in July, but the bill has been modified with scores of amendments ahead of a second round of voting. "The revised draft law presented...

September 22, 2017
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June 2017

15Jun

Ukraine. Thousands in eastern Ukraine lose access to pensions

Mykola Ivanovych, who worked as a bus driver for 54 years, must present himself at the state-run bank in Stanytsia Luhanska, which checks his identity to allow him to receive his monthly payment of USD$53. Inside the bank, he waits patiently while his wife joins the queue to carry out the verification process. Mykola Ivanovych, who is his 70s, suffered two strokes after his son was killed by an artillery shell in 2014 – the first year of the Ukraine conflict,...

June 15, 2017
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