Batkivshchyna Party leader and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko says deputies of opposition factions in parliament have appealed to the Constitutional Court to rule unconstitutional the cancellation of benefits for the poor.
"We filed a special complaint with the Constitutional Court regarding the unlawful cancellation of all benefits – this is approximately 40 billion hryvnias that provided support to people in our country," Tymoshenko told journalists before the start of today’s court hearing, according to the official Tymoshenko’s website.
She also said that deputies of opposition factions are trying to block the transfer of the so-called pension reform law to the president for signing.
"The pension law that completely destroys the rights of pensioners won’t leave parliament until the deputies return for the session. But after this there will have to be a revote for the destructive so-called pension reform," she said.
Earlier Yuriy Karmazin (the Our Ukraine-People’s Self Defense faction) said that the law on pension reform should be canceled, as an article of the constitution, which foresees personal voting of lawmakers, was violated during the consideration of the law at second reading.
Minister of Social Policy Sergiy Tigipko said that Ukrainian cabinet ready to create local offices of Pension Fund.
According to Tigipko, the draft resolution was developed by the Pension Fund in order to improve the Fund’s organization, to improve its local management and reduce the number of senior offices.
The decree suggests merging the departments of the Fund in large cities and their respective districts. There are currently 122 such departments.
In addition, separate offices of the Fund which operate in a single city will be merged as well. There are currently 19 such offices.
Tigipko stressed that the implementation of this resolution doesn’t require any additional funds of the Pension Fund and the national budget.
According to preliminary calculations, they will cut the number of full-time jobs by 1,220, which will allow the Fund to save almost Hr 70 million a year.
At present, lawmakers are in vacation.
The next parliamentary session is to be open on Sept. 6, 2011.
Ukraine’s parliament adopted a law on pension reform early on July 8.
The document foresees a gradual increase in the retirement age for women from 55 to 60 years and an increase in pensionable service by ten years for men and women.
