Ministry of Social Policy completes work on pension system reform bill

Ukraine's Minister of Social Policy, Family and Unity, Denys Uliutin, convened a meeting with World Bank officials, including the new Regional Director for Human Development, Aparnaa Somanathan. The focus of their discussion was the ongoing modernization of Ukraine's social protection system, a project that is being carried out with World Bank support under the SPIRIT initiative.

The meeting underscored the Ministry's completion of the pension system reform bill, achieved in partnership with the World Bank. The ultimate aim of this reform is to ensure the long-term fiscal sustainability of the new system. Earlier reports indicated that the reform of the solidarity-based pension system was set for implementation in 2024, a plan that was further detailed by then-Minister of Social Policy Oksana Zholnovych, who envisioned the infrastructure for a funded pension system to be ready by 2025, although the launch was contingent upon the end of the conflict.

Successive announcements from various ministry officials in early 2025 provided further timelines, with Uliutin himself suggesting that the groundwork for a funded pension system might commence in 2026, with basic social assistance to be introduced around the same time. However, by August 2025, Uliutin reassessed the situation and suggested that introducing a mandatory funded pension system at that time was premature due to the financial market's lack of readiness.

Despite these shifting timelines, Uliutin affirmed in February 2026 that the ministry would finalize the pension reform work and submit the bill to the Verkhovna Rada by the end of that year, if the current favorable demographic conditions and the state of the pension system hold.