IDPs are forced to spend several days in queue to the office of the PF in Mariupol. This is reported by the Right to Protection charity fund.
"Within a few days, the long queues are observed to the Central Office of the Pension Fund of Ukraine in Mariupol. There are mainly IDPs who apply for the restoration of pensions. Olha Nevidoma from the Right to Protection reports that some spend three or more days under the building", - statement said.
There are online and ordinary queues. Those, who are in the online one, have priority and get to the office without any problems.
The "live" queue takes place on the spot. Twice a day, at 7:30 and 17:00, people compile lists. People who did not check in on time, are crossed out.
On August 28, there were 188 people on the lists. Only 32 of them were admitted to the PF.
The reason for these queues is the next verification of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine in accordance with the decision № 136 of the Cabinet of Ministers from February 18, 2016. According to this resolution, the Ministry of Finance sends recommendations to the PF authorities on the suspension (termination) of social and pension payments. The PF bodies, in turn, send these lists to the social protection departments for verification purposes. But, according to a recent court decision, additional checks are illegal, therefore most of the departments refuse to perform these checks and return the lists to the PF bodies. Since the PF has to respond to the appeal of the Ministry of Finance, it stops paying pensions to IDPs, but does not restore them, because there is no necessary information from the social protection departments.
According to Olha Nevidoma, the IDPs complain that they are scared by the new regulations, which allegedly forbid crossing the contact line in the direction of the uncontrolled territory within three weeks. "People do not have the opportunity to stay so long in Mariupol, so they are concerned that they will not be able to restore their pensions", - the message says.