Identification of Ukrainian pensioners-2024: 4 ways to avoid being left without money

Until March 31, all Ukrainian pensioners internally displaced or living abroad were required to undergo identification. Those who haven’t had time, hurry up, it’s possible to do it now.

If there is no identification, payments are stopped

There are four ways for a pensioner to pass identification. If it is not provided, the payment of the pension is terminated, and many did not receive their money in April for this reason.

The Ministry of Social Policy reminds that the standard of physical identification for all recipients of pensions and social benefits has been in effect in Ukraine on an ongoing basis since 2004. This is a generally accepted international practice necessary to verify whether a person receiving funds from the state is really alive, and whether the payment is received by the person to whom it is assigned. The ministry's website explains:

“The vast majority of Ukrainian pensioners and recipients of social benefits did not take into account the effect of this norm, since they often underwent physical identification in a way that did not attract much attention, for example, when turning to the bank to receive a new plastic card. Or, in practice, identification was carried out by the postman when handing over a pension “.

Since the introduction of Covid-19 quarantine in Ukraine, pension payments to pensioners who became IDPs before February 24, 2022 have been made without undergoing physical identification. But, the ministry recalled, “from July 1, due to the end of quarantine, it resumed its operation.”

If someone did not have time to undergo identification before March 31, 2024, they can do it now. The pension fund will accumulate funds in the person's pension account until the verification process takes place. As soon as the procedure is completed, the funds will be credited to the pensioner’s account.

How to get identified

The Pension Fund of Ukraine informs that writes publication “Correspondent” that exists four ways to get identified depending on the specific case:

1. Personally contact a branch of JSC Oschadbank or any convenient service center of the Pension Fund of Ukraine with an identification document (passport of a citizen of Ukraine).
2. Through your personal account on the electronic services web portal Pension Fund of Ukraine using a remote qualified electronic signature Diya. The signature (Diya ID) is created using the mobile application of the Unified State Web Portal of Electronic Services.
3. Via video conferencing in the territorial body of the Pension Fund of Ukraine (the corresponding procedure was approved by Resolution of the Board of the Pension Fund of Ukraine dated November 20, 2023 No. 49-2, registered with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine on December 5, 2023 No. 2111/41).
4. In a foreign diplomatic institution of Ukraine obtain a document certifying that the individual is “alive and well” if the pensioner is abroad. The certificate issued in the prescribed manner, together with an application for identification (in a free form), should be sent to the territorial body of the Pension Fund of Ukraine where the pensioner is registered. The original certificate along with the application can be sent by post or in scanned form through the electronic services web portal of the Pension Fund of Ukraine, using a qualified electronic signature.

Video identification session

The video identification session is carried out on a certain date and time in the application selected by the pensioner (Google Meet, Signal, Skype, Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp, Zoom). Based on the results of the videoconference, the PFU body makes a decision on passing/failure of identification.
The pensioner receives a notification about the result of physical identification via video conferencing via email or in his personal account on the PFU web portal. As noted by the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights (UHHR), the videoconference session lasts about 20 minutes:

“During video identification, a representative of the Pension Fund asks questions from the approved list. For example, asks for your full name, date and place of birth, document details (passport, TIN, pension certificate), telephone number, registered and actual place of residence, when was the last time you contacted the authorities Pension Fund of Ukraine. In addition, they may ask about military (alternative) service, education, last official place of work, whether a subsidy was ever paid, etc. If the quality of communication is poor, then another date may be set.”

How not to lose money

Human rights activists note that the Pension Fund body cannot use the results of video identification if:

• there are unrefuted doubts regarding the validity (validity) of the identification document;
• there are indications that the recipient/legal representative/assistant being video identified is being influenced by a third party.

Based on the results of video identification, the authorized employee creates a video recording of the conversation, generates files from the video of the recipient/legal representative/assistant with his own identification document, video of all demonstrated documents and an interview protocol.

The information recorded during video identification is transferred no later than 5 days to the responsible structural unit of the PFU for verification. After this the organ Pension Fundno later than 10 days after video identification, makes a decision on identifying/not identifying the recipient’s face.

The Pension Fund body no later than 3 working days after the decision is made notifies the recipient/legal representative/assistant of the result of the video identification. If the decision is negative, then the Pension Fund must provide an explanation of the reasons, the procedure and timing for re-applying for video identification, as well as the procedure for appealing such a decision. Sometimes the identification procedure comes with complications, the UHHHR says:

“For some reason, information about the completed physical identification did not reach the institution concerned – the Pension Fund of Ukraine, so the accrual of pensions was stopped. To resume accruals, pensioners will need to personally contact the PFU service centers with an application to resume payment of the pension, since in this situation it is not blocking bank cards, namely stopping the accrual of pensions to the personal account.”

Human rights activists are expressing concern that the reason for the interruptions in payments may be a technical failure in the information exchange system between Sberbank and PFU. This leads to the fact that the data of pensioners passing through the bank may be processed incorrectly or not on time by the Pension Fund, resulting in delays and errors in pension payments.

Beware, scammers

One of the problems is the increased activity of scammers. The Pension Fund of Ukraine reported that unknown persons, posing as PFU employees, are asking pensioners, who must undergo physical identification, for bank card details. The message says:

“We officially declare that neither for submitting an application for physical identification via video conferencing, nor for the identification procedure, extension or renewal of payments, authorized employees of the fund do not use information about bank card details to confirm the identity of a pensioner. This is not provided for by any regulatory document.”

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