Constitutional Court says military widows can receive two pensions

The story began in 2004. Then the spouse of the plaintiff, a soldier of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was recognized as a disabled person of the I group due to military injury received during the performance of duties. Due to the inability to perform these duties in the future, he was dismissed, and a month later died. In 2017, when the citizen turned 50, she received the right to an early old-age pension, she was also assigned a survivor's pension. For some time, the woman received two benefits, but not for long: in 2021, the payment of the second pension was terminated, and then restored due to the termination of the payment of the old-age insurance pension. This did not suit the citizen, and she went to court, but in all instances lost. As a general rule, citizens can receive only one of the pensions assigned to them. But there are a few exceptions to this rule. In particular, relatives of people who died due to military injury may be assigned a survivor's pension and any other pension established in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Since a causal relationship between the injury and the death had been established, the citizen considered that her case was in accordance with this provision of the law. But the courts paid close attention to the word “dead”, indicating that the husband was not civilianly killed, but died.

The Constitutional Court concluded that such an interpretation of the law puts the relatives of servicemen who died from military trauma some time after it was received in an unequal position with the relatives of the deceased immediately after the injury. Such citizens were put in a worse position solely because of the time of occurrence of the consequences of injuries or diseases that led to death. This, in the Court’s view, has no reasonable justification and is inconsistent with constitutionally relevant objectives. Court decisions must be reviewed, the widow's right to receive two pensions restored, the legislator needs to clarify the law so that it does not allow interpretations that infringe on the rights of citizens. Before this amendment is made, pensions in similar cases shall be paid in accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Court.