Change in the Procedure for Determining Salary Does Not Give the Right to Reduce an Already Assigned Civil Servant's Pension — Supreme Court

The Pension Fund cannot review and reduce an already assigned civil servant’s pension based on Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 823 and new salary certificates issued in accordance with this resolution. This conclusion was reached by the Supreme Court, sitting as the Cassation Administrative Court.

The court emphasised that the changes introduced by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 823 to Procedure No. 622 regulate the appointment of pensions to civil servants after the introduction of a new job classification system but cannot be used as a basis for reviewing an already assigned pension. Furthermore, paragraph 5 of Procedure No. 622 explicitly states that new salary certificates do not constitute grounds for reviewing a previously assigned civil servant’s pension.

Case Circumstances

The plaintiff, who was entitled to a civil servant’s pension, applied to the Pension Fund on 30 January 2024 with a request to transfer to such a pension. Along with the application, she submitted certificates of salary components, including a certificate detailing the official salary, rank allowance, and length of service allowance as of January 2024.

When appointing the pension, the Pension Fund did not consider this certificate. Instead, it used a certificate for the official salary, rank allowance, and length of service allowance as of December 2023, as well as another certificate regarding salary components. Consequently, the plaintiff initiated legal proceedings.

The courts of first and appellate instances agreed that the Pension Fund unlawfully ignored the January 2024 certificate and ordered a pension recalculation from 30 January 2024. At the same time, they recognised as lawful another recalculation the Pension Fund made from 1 October 2024, after Cabinet Resolution No. 823 came into force. The plaintiff appealed this part of the decisions to the Supreme Court.

Why the Pension Fund Reduced the Pension

After Cabinet Resolution No. 823 came into force, the Pension Fund requested new salary certificates, aligned the pension case materials with the new procedure, and redefined the pension amount.

As a result, the monthly pension payment was reduced from UAH 11,862.77 to UAH 9,486.90.

Supreme Court’s Position

The Cassation Administrative Court disagreed with this approach.

The court noted that regardless of how the Pension Fund labelled its actions — "alignment," "clarification," or "recalculation" — in fact, there was a redefinition of the amount of an already assigned pension, i.e., a review. The legal significance lies not in the name of the procedure but in its content and consequences for the individual.

The Supreme Court emphasised that paragraph 5 of Procedure No. 622, after amendments introduced by Resolution No. 823, explicitly states that new salary certificates are issued exclusively for pension appointment and do not constitute grounds for reviewing an already assigned civil servant’s pension. Thus, by changing the salary determination mechanism, the Cabinet of Ministers simultaneously excluded the possibility of using the new rules to review or reduce already assigned pensions.

Constitutional Guarantees

The Supreme Court also noted that applying the new procedure to an already assigned pension contradicts the principle of the irreversibility of normative legal acts over time, the prohibition of narrowing the content and scope of existing rights, as well as the principle of legal certainty and protection of an individual’s reasonable expectations.

In case No. 240/25473/24, the court stressed that a person’s right to pension provision in the amount defined by law, after its realisation and pension assignment, is subject to state protection and cannot be worsened by subsequent changes in regulatory provisions.

Moreover, the Supreme Court referred to the practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the European Court of Human Rights, noting that an already assigned pension is a property interest protected by Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

What the Supreme Court Decided

The Cassation Administrative Court partially upheld the cassation appeal.

The Supreme Court overturned the decisions of the lower courts insofar as they recognised the reduction of the pension from 1 October 2024 as lawful. It declared unlawful the actions of the Main Department of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Zhytomyr region regarding the pension recalculation applying Cabinet Resolution No. 823. Furthermore, it obliged the Pension Fund to recalculate and pay the pension from 1 October 2024, without applying this resolution, based on the pension amount determined after its recalculation from 30 January 2024, taking into account the relevant salary certificates and previously paid amounts.

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