Pension provision for military personnel in the USA: lessons for Ukraine

Abstract

Pension provision of military personnel is one of the important components of social security of every country. This system should guarantee a decent level of pension payments, because this will contribute to the high attractiveness and perspective of service in the national armed forces and the preservation of the most trained specialists in them. The war with Russia once again proves the need for a professional army, taking into account international practices and the chosen course for joining the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance. Quite interesting for both analysis and adaptation in Ukraine is the experience of implementing social support for military personnel in the USA, in particular, regarding the receipt of pension payments. In this paper, an analysis of the pension provision of US military personnel is carried out through the prism of pension plans and benefits that this category of citizens claims. The study demonstrated that the US military pension system is effective, focused and structured, and consists of various types of pensions, military personal deductions for retirement accounts, military pensions and pensions under the federal insurance program. The authors prove that this population category is the most socially protected, as evidenced by the results of a study of the level of pension payments to US military personnel, which indicates the high efficiency of this pension system. It should be noted that one of the effective mechanisms for increasing the level of pension provision for military personnel of Ukraine is the adaptation, based on scientific research, of the best world practices regarding the provision of pension payments to this category of recipients. The article analyzes the features of the functioning of the current system of pension provision for US military personnel. The system of pension plans and benefits claimed by US military personnel is singled out. The amount of pension payments to US military personnel in dynamics is considered. Based on the results of the study, appropriate conclusions were drawn and recommendations were made to increase the level of pension payments to military personnel.