Legal advice: how pensioners can complete physical identification to receive payments

Dmytro Khanas, Advocacy Adviser at the Rokada Charitable Foundation, has prepared an explanation of how pensioners can complete physical identification to receive pensions and insurance payments. The procedure runs until 31 December of each calendar year. However, for persons who completed physical identification before 1 February 2026 but did not submit a notice that they do not receive a pension or insurance payments from the pension authorities of the Russian Federation, such payments continue until such a notice is submitted, but no later than 1 April 2026.

If a recipient has left the territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation and lives in government-controlled territory, and their pension (monthly lifetime allowance) and/or insurance payments have been stopped on grounds related to physical identification, payments are resumed after physical identification is completed.
The category of persons whose payments were temporarily stopped for failing to complete physical identification also includes pensioners who left the temporarily occupied territories but did not apply to the Pension Fund to transfer their payments to government-controlled territory. That is, in their pension files the address for receiving payments remains in the temporarily occupied territories. To transfer pension payments to the new place of residence, an application must be submitted to the Pension Fund of Ukraine, either in person at any Pension Fund service centre or online via the personal account on the Pension Fund’s web portal.

Please note that the procedure does not apply to citizens of Ukraine temporarily residing abroad if the pension (monthly lifetime allowance) or insurance payments are paid under international treaties of Ukraine ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

What to do when identification is required?

Physical identification is carried out by the bodies of the Pension Fund of Ukraine.

The following are equivalent to physical identification:

• logging into the personal electronic account on the Pension Fund of Ukraine’s e-services portal using the remote qualified electronic signature “Diia.Pidpys” (“Diia ID”);
• identification via video conference conducted by a territorial body of the Pension Fund of Ukraine (with presentation of identity documents);
• certification by the relevant Ukrainian diplomatic mission abroad, at the request of a recipient temporarily residing abroad, that the person is alive.

Please note that in the case of certification that a person is alive, the document certifying this, together with a written application for continued payment in free form, is sent by registered mail or by mail with declared value, or submitted via the Pension Fund of Ukraine’s e-services portal together with a scanned copy of the document bearing an electronic signature.

For persons who are in the temporarily occupied territories (TOT), or who left the TOT for government-controlled territory or abroad during the occupation, the pension (monthly lifetime allowance) and insurance payments are paid provided that they do not receive corresponding payments from the pension authorities of the Russian Federation. In the absence of information exchange between the pension authorities of Ukraine and the Russian Federation, the fact of not receiving such payments is confirmed by a statement to that effect to the Pension Fund of Ukraine in the person’s application for the assignment, resumption or continuation of payments.

What are the consequences of not following the procedure?

• if the territorial bodies of the Pension Fund of Ukraine have no information on completed physical identification as of 31 December of the calendar year, pension and insurance payments are stopped from 1 January of the following year;
• for recipients living in the territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation, the pension is also stopped if the Pension Fund of Ukraine receives information that there have been no debit transactions on current accounts opened with an authorised bank for six months, provided that no physical identification was carried out during this period;
• pension (monthly lifetime allowance) and insurance payments are resumed after being stopped by decision of the territorial body of the Pension Fund of Ukraine after physical identification is completed within a year of the date payments were stopped, and on the basis of applications for resumption received by the Pension Fund of Ukraine.

How to check whether identification has been completed?

• use the “My Identification” service on the e-services portal or in the Pension Fund of Ukraine mobile app.

Useful links:

How to check whether identification has been completed: https://www.pfu.gov.ua/2172658-na-vebportali-elektronnyh-poslug-pensijnogo-fondu-ukrayiny-realizovano-servis-moya-identyfikatsiya/.

Ways of completing physical identification: https://www.pfu.gov.ua/2173853-sposoby-prohodzhennya-fizychnoyi-identyfikatsiyi-pensioneriv-ta-otrymuvachiv-strahovyh-vyplat/.

How to complete physical identification in the most convenient way with Diia.Pidpys via the Pension Fund of Ukraine mobile app: https://tinyurl.com/mrytud63.

More information about physical identification: https://www.pfu.gov.ua/poslugi/pensioneram/fizychna-identyfikatsiya-pensioneriv/.