Which pensioners will receive an increase from April 1 and why not everyone will feel it
Kyiv • UNN
From April 1, 2026, pensions for those with more than two years of service will be recalculated. Payments will increase by approximately 200-300 hryvnias for only a portion of individuals.
Starting from April 1, 2026, Ukraine will automatically recalculate pensions for a portion of working pensioners. This is not a new indexation, but rather a review of payments for those who continued to work after retirement and acquired additional insurance experience.
To understand who will receive how much in recalculated payments this month, UNN spoke with Serhiy Korobkin, an expert in the pension industry.
According to him, it is important to distinguish between indexation and recalculation, as these are different mechanisms.
First, this is not indexation. This is also an automatic recalculation, but it only applies to those who are working
Pensioners who continued to work after their pension was granted or previously reviewed and acquired two more years of uncounted experience during this time are subject to automatic recalculation. These additional years are added to the pension calculation formula.
This is a recalculation based on experience for those who continue to work. A person retired but continues to work. And when they have acquired an additional two years of experience, these two uncounted years of experience are added to the pension calculation
The Pension Fund conducts such a check every spring. If a person has 24 months of uncounted experience by March, the payment is automatically recalculated.
According to Korobkin, it is not necessary to submit a separate application for this now, as the Pension Fund sees the fact of work and payment of contributions in its database.
Previously, to do this, you had to write an application. Now it is not necessary to write such an application. Every year, the Pension Fund checks in the spring whether a person has acquired an additional two years of experience or not. If they have, this recalculation is done automatically
Who exactly will receive increased pensions in April 2026
The expert emphasized that a mechanical recalculation does not mean an automatic significant increase in payments for all working pensioners.
First, not all of those who work have already acquired the necessary two years of additional experience. Second, even after recalculation, the increase may be insignificant or may not affect the total amount of the payment at all.
And among them, not all receive an increase. It's not that the state adds something. It's what the person earned themselves
According to his assessment, in previous years, the average amount of such an increase was approximately from 200 to 300 hryvnias. The expert explained this by the peculiarities of the pension formula. If a person, for example, had 30 years of experience, and then worked two more years, the experience coefficient increases insignificantly. Because of this, the amount of the additional payment in most cases is not large.
If we take previous years, the average increase there was 200 to 300 hryvnias. This is generally not much
How many Ukrainians will receive increased payments in April
In an exclusive comment to UNN, the expert provided approximate data from which one can conclude how many Ukrainians will receive an increased pension this month.
According to him, there are officially about 10.2 million pensioners in Ukraine, of whom 2.8 million continue to work. At the same time, this does not mean that all of them will simultaneously fall under the recalculation this year, as the key condition remains the availability of additional uncounted experience.
Officially, according to statistics, there are about 10.2 million pensioners, and the Pension Fund reported that as of January 1, there were 2.8 million working pensioners. But recalculation is not carried out for everyone, because this experience still needs to be acquired
He added that the recalculation could approximately affect several hundred thousand people, but even among them, not everyone will actually see an increase in payments.
There may be a recalculation, for example, for 400,000 pensioners. But in fact, 200,000 felt an increase in their pension
Why many pensioners may not feel the April pension recalculation
Serhiy Korobkin emphasized that not all pensioners whose payments are formally recalculated will actually feel an increase in money. This applies, in particular, to people with the maximum pension, for which there is a limit, as well as those whose payment consists not only of the basic pension amount, but also of various surcharges to the minimally guaranteed level.
According to the expert, there are situations when, after recalculation, the basic pension amount increases, but at the same time, another surcharge decreases. As a result, the total amount that a person receives monthly may not change.
That is, even when a person seems to have worked, the recalculation was done, but they do not feel it. Such cases do happen
Korobkin also gave an example where a person has a small basic pension amount but receives a surcharge to the established minimum level. In such a case, after recalculation, the basic pension amount may increase, but the amount of the other surcharge will decrease by the corresponding amount. Because of this, the total amount of the payment will remain unchanged.
Separately, the expert in pension legislation noted that there are frequent cases when the pension has already reached the established limit, so even after acquiring additional experience, it is not increased.
What factors are taken into account when recalculating pensions
The interlocutor of UNN explained that during such a recalculation, not only additional experience but also earnings received after retirement can be taken into account. But in practice, such cases do not often yield a tangible result.
According to Korobkin, if a person worked for another two years after retirement with a good official salary, this earnings can be added to the previous period to calculate the average coefficient. If this improves the indicator, the Pension Fund recalculates based on the salary as well. If the new salary turned out to be lower, then the previous earnings can be left in the calculation, and only the experience added.
If this salary was good, it is added. If the coefficient increased slightly, a recalculation is made. If, on the contrary, a person retired after good work and began to receive a small salary, then it may not be taken into account, the salary that was is left, and the experience is added
At the same time, the expert noted that two years of work after retirement usually cannot significantly change the overall picture if the person already had a long career path before that.
In terms of salary, there are very few cases today when it will really be noticeable, because two years cannot cover everything that was there for the last 20 years
What to do if a person's pension has not been recalculated: instructions from an expert
If a pensioner continues to work, but after April 1 did not see a recalculation or believes that the Pension Fund did not take into account some of the data, Serhiy Korobkin advises contacting the PFU for verification.
According to him, this can be done in several ways:
- in person at the branch;
- through electronic services;
- through the portal of pension services;
- using email;
- by calling the hotline.
If a person has doubts, it is worth asking for a written answer with an explanation.
You can always contact them. There are now electronic services, you can personally contact any branch, you can submit an application through the portal of pension services, write an email, call the hotline of the Pension Fund
He added that a written explanation can be useful if a person wants to understand how the calculation was carried out, why the increase turned out to be insignificant, or why there was no increase at all.