Government thinks up new way out of enforcing court rulings on benefits
The Cabinet of Ministers has registered a draft law which will revoke payment in full without delay of pensions and compensation in accordance with court rulings. Draft Law No. 9400 on Amendments to the Code of Administrative Justice regarding examination of cases pertaining to pensions was prepared by the Ministry of Social Policy. The amendments would remove the present norm on “enforcement without delay of court rulings on pension payments” in full. Instead the size of such immediate payments enforcing court rulings would be reduced to “the limits of the amount owed for one month”.
The draft bill would also reduce the fines which can be imposed on officials for not enforcing court rulings from 100-300 times the minimum wage to 100-300 times the minimum wage before tax (98, 5-295, 5 thousand UAH against 1, 7-5, 4 thousand UAH).
The draft bill was tabled immediately after Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Tihipko labelled as “corrupt” court rulings ordering payments of around 30 thousand UAH to Chernobyl Disaster rescue workers (those registered as having suffered as a consequence – translator). The Union of Chernobyl Rescue Workers assumes that the draft law is an attempt by the government to refuse to pay its financial obligations to people entitled to pensions.
Mykhailo Kukhar from the Ministry of Social Policy also stated that the draft law is directly connected with court rulings over social payments both to those who suffered through their work in the cleaning up after the Chernobyl Disaster, and children of the War. He says that there are presently 13.6 million, 25% of whom are children of the War.
The Union of Chernobyl Rescue Workers are against the move. Spokesperson Petro Andreev says that “this is yet another attempt by the government to renege on the commitments it has made and take away money awarded by the court to widows, the disabled, those who suffered as a consequence of the Chernobyl Disaster, children and other categories of people due benefits”.