Draft Law #16076 of September 15, 2026

Initiator: submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Who is affected: individual debtors, in particular pensioners whose pensions or wages are subject to compulsory recovery; judgment creditors under judgments of the European Court of Human Rights; parents and children in cases concerning contact with a child; the State Enforcement Service of Ukraine and private enforcement officers; the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.

Summary:

  • establishes a protected minimum for deductions from pensions and wages: recovery is possible only if the amount exceeds the subsistence minimum for persons who have lost the capacity to work, and after the deduction the payment may not fall below this minimum;
  • extends the period for holding funds awarded by the European Court of Human Rights in the deposit account of a state enforcement body or a private enforcement officer from 1 to 5 years before they are transferred to the state budget;
  • changes the procedure for enforcing decisions on contact with a child: involves guardianship authorities in verifying enforcement; doubles the fine for each repeated failure by the debtor to comply with the decision; establishes that a child’s refusal to have contact with the judgment creditor resulting from psychological influence by the debtor (suggestion, obstruction) is not considered a valid reason and entails sanctions; grants the enforcement officer the right to apply to a court of first instance to change the method and procedure of enforcement if the decision cannot be enforced in the manner originally determined;
  • restores the Ministry of Justice’s oversight of private enforcement officers through scheduled and unscheduled inspections, repealing the wartime provision that had suspended this oversight;
  • corrects a 2022 legislative error: removes the provision under which decisions on the recovery of funds in favor of assistant-consultants to members of parliament were enforced under a separate procedure through treasury service bodies — this created confusion as to who exactly the debtor was;
  • adds a ground for postponing enforcement actions in cases involving a child — the child’s illness or another valid reason for the child’s absence.

What is right:

  • it implements the binding decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine of March 22, 2023, and extends the protection of the debtor’s minimum income not only to pensions (which the Court examined) but also to wages;
  • the mechanism for distinguishing between a child’s own refusal of contact with one parent and a refusal shaped under the influence of the other parent is aimed at addressing the obstruction of family ties and is consistent with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on the protection of the right to family life under Article 8 of the Convention.