The Ministry of Finance explained why the new procedure for calculating judges' salaries will not take effect in 2026
The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine provided clarifications regarding the application of the new version of Article 135 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges."
Note that on June 25, Law No. 4905-IX "On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine 'On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges' and the Law of Ukraine 'On the High Council of Justice' regarding the improvement of judges' integrity declarations and judges' family ties" came into force. Article 135 of the Law was supplemented with a provision: the basic amount of a judge's official salary can now be determined exclusively based on the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons, established by the law on the State Budget for the respective year.
To resolve the issue of proper implementation of the above-mentioned article of the Law in 2026, the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine addressed the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine for clarifications.
According to the mentioned amendments to the Law on the Judiciary, no other value can be applied to determine the basic amount of a judge's official salary except the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons, as provided in the fourth paragraph of part two of Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Subsistence Minimum" in the amount established for this social and demographic group by the law on the State Budget of Ukraine for the respective year (currently UAH 3,328).
In response, the Ministry of Finance noted that the application of the new version of Article 135 will require additional state budget expenditures in 2026 estimated at UAH 2.7 billion.
Thus, the Ministry draws attention to the fact that changing the components of judges' remuneration will automatically create the need for additional funds to recalculate the monthly lifelong monetary allowance for retired judges.
In the letter, the Ministry of Finance emphasizes that according to the fifth paragraph of Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine "On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2026," the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons established for the respective state body as of December 31, 2025, (UAH 2,102) is applied to determine the basic official salary of a judge.
Given the above, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine indicated that it will consider the possibility of ensuring the implementation of the provisions of part three of Article 135 of the Law on the Judiciary during the formation of the indicators of the draft State Budget of Ukraine for 2027.
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