In Odesa, a court forced a woman to return ₴140,000 in pension payments for a year and a half

The Peresypskyi District Court of Odesa upheld the claim of the Pension Fund and ruled to recover more than 142,000 hryvnias of pension payments from a local resident. The reason was the retroactive cancellation of her disability status.

This is stated in the court decision published in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions, according to NikVesti.

In 2020, the woman was first assigned disability group II, which she confirmed during re-examinations in 2021 and 2023. The last document guaranteed her this status until July 2025.

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However, in February 2026, the newly created «expert team for assessing a person's daily functioning» (a structure that replaced the MSEC, — note) reviewed the Odesa woman's case.

They decided to cancel her disability status from 1 August 2023. This created a legal conflict: the woman was receiving her pension on legal grounds, but after the commission's decision, it turned out that she had been legally healthy for the past year and a half.

The Pension Fund calculated that between August 2023 and March 2025, the woman had received an «excess» of 142,861 hryvnias. Since she refused to voluntarily return this amount, the case was referred to court.

The judge sided with the state, citing Article 1212 of the Civil Code of Ukraine (acquisition of property without sufficient legal grounds). Now the woman is obliged not only to return the entire amount of the pension, but also to pay 1,331 hryvnias in court fees.

It should be noted that pensions in southern Ukraine remain lower than the national average. For example, pensioners in the Mykolaiv region received an average of 6,241 hryvnias last year, which is 303 hryvnias less than the national average. In the Odesa region, the average pension was 6,317 hryvnias, and in the Kherson region, only 5,541 hryvnias.