Minister of Ukrainian Social Policy: Pension Fund Is Bankrupt

Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ

24th May, 2016

Regnum

Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Andrey Reva said in interview to the website "epravda" on May 23rd, that the pension fund of the country is virtually bankrupt — the deficit on its balance reached 145 billion hryvnia (about $5.8 billion).

According to him, the entire budget of the fund amounts to 257 billion UAH (about $10.3 billion), more than half of that (145 billion or $5.8 billion) are grants from the state budget. "So the pension fund is bankrupt," said Reva, explaining that there is virtually nothing to cover the deficit.

The critical situation with the pension fund is the fault of the former leadership, said the Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine. It was, according to Reva, decided that the deficit of 80 billion hryvnia ($3.2 billion) should be reduced by taxing the personal income of the richest retirees at 15%.

Thus, the fund reduced the single social contribution, giving businesses 65 billion hryvnia ($2.6 billion). And so it turned out the deficit was 145 billion, concluded Reva. He added that the deficit will only increase, as pensions in the country are too small and they need to be increased.