Pension stopped being accrued during the pensioner's lifetime: do these funds pass into inheritance

After the pensioner's death, his daughter inherited over 283 thousand hryvnias of unreceived pension. However, it turned out that the Pension Fund had previously stopped accruing payments, due to which a significant amount of pension funds was not included in the inheritance.

The heir went to court, believing that her father did not lose the right to the pension, and therefore the unpaid amounts should also be included in the inheritance. The Pension Fund, on the other hand, insisted that after the payments were stopped, the pension was no longer accrued, so there was effectively nothing to inherit. The court had to answer the question of whether an heir can claim a pension that the Pension Fund stopped accruing during the pensioner's lifetime.

Circumstances of case No. 183/10244/25

The daughter of the deceased pensioner applied to the Samara City District Court of the Dnipropetrovsk region after her father's death, having accepted the inheritance and received a certificate of inheritance rights regarding the unreceived pension. The Pension Fund paid her 283.36 thousand UAH of pension accrued to her father for the period from March 2022 to April 2023.

At the same time, the woman believed that the Pension Fund unjustifiably stopped accruing her father's pension from May 1, 2023. Because of this, pension payments for the subsequent period — up to and including June 2024 — were not included in the inheritance. She requested these funds to be recognized as belonging to her as an heir and to be recovered from the Pension Fund.

The plaintiff noted that her father lived in the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk region and received his pension through "Ukrposhta." In her opinion, the Pension Fund should have ensured the accumulation of due payments even after the actual delivery was stopped.

Position of the Pension Fund

The Pension Fund explained that pension payments were stopped from May 1, 2023, based on paragraph 4 of part one of article 49 of the Law "On Compulsory State Pension Insurance" due to non-receipt of the pension for six consecutive months.

The defendant emphasized that after the payments stopped, the pension was no longer accrued, and therefore such amounts cannot be part of the inheritance. According to the Pension Fund, the heir has the right only to the funds already accrued during the pensioner's lifetime but cannot demand pension accrual for the period after its termination.

What the court established

The court established that the plaintiff is the sole heir by law, timely accepted the inheritance, and no other persons who could claim the disputed funds were identified.

During the case consideration, the court noted that the Pension Fund did not provide proper evidence of the legality of stopping the accrual and payment of the pension. Moreover, the defendant could not provide the complete pension file of the pensioner, citing that it remained in the temporarily occupied territory.

The court also took into account the practice of the Supreme Court, according to which it is necessary to distinguish cases when heirs try to obtain appointment or recalculation of social payments and situations when a person during their lifetime already had the right to the respective payment, but its accrual or payment was stopped.

In the court's opinion, the absence of the pensioner's own appeal against the Pension Fund's actions does not deprive heirs of the right to inherit pension amounts that belonged to him during his lifetime. The termination of pension payments does not automatically mean the loss of the right to it if the legality of such termination is not proven.

Why the court did not recover a specific amount

The plaintiff requested to recover over 309 thousand UAH, but the court denied this part of the claim. The court noted that the provided calculation was based on assumptions, and the case materials did not allow for an accurate determination of the pension amount and all due supplements for the disputed period.

At the same time, the defendant did not provide documents that would allow the court to independently establish the exact amount of due payments. Therefore, the court concluded that the decision cannot be based on assumptions and determine a specific amount in the absence of proper evidence.

Court decision

The court partially satisfied the claim and obliged the Main Department of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in the Luhansk region to accrue and pay the heir the pension amounts due to her father for the period from May 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, inclusive. The court denied the rest of the claims, including the recovery of a specific amount.

Thus, the court concluded that in this case the heir has the right to receive pension amounts that belonged to her father during his lifetime but were not accrued and paid by the Pension Fund, as the defendant did not prove the legality of stopping such payments.

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