Pensioners outnumber taxpayers in Ukraine

Minister of Social Policy Oksana Zholnovych said this in a comment to Espreso correspondent Dmytro Didora.

According to her, there are currently fewer workers than pensioners. In particular, there are currently more than 10 million people in Ukraine who pay a single social contribution and 11 million pensioners, she added.

"One and a half to one person allows us to increase the amount of pension accruals, provided that there are 'white salaries' , taxes are paid, and so on. That's why we need to attract about 6 million people to the labor market so that our pensioners can live more decently and so that we can increase their pensions - this is objectivity," Zholnovych said.

The minister also emphasized that the aid approved by Congress for Ukraine cannot be used to pay pensions to Ukrainian citizens.

"There are no pay-as-you-go pensions in America. There is no such thing as a pay-as-you-go pension. There are accumulative pension accounts, like insurance accounts. Therefore, it is very difficult for them, for their voters, to explain that if they do not pay any such pensions to their citizens, why should they transfer pensions to Ukrainian citizens," Zholnovych said.

The Ministry of Social Policy is currently working on the gradual introduction of a funded pension. This will be an additional tool, the head of the ministry emphasized.

• According to statistics from the Pension Fund of Ukraine, out of a total of 10,154,705 Ukrainian pensioners, 62.7% of them receive payments of less than UAH 5,000.