Two Russian women have succeeded in getting their full New Zealand taxpayer-funded pensions after their Russian pensions dried up with the invasion of Ukraine.

The women were caught by sanctions imposed on Russia, which led to the suspension of all pensions paid overseas.

Each woman was receiving NZ Superannuation at reduced levels, offset by their Russian pensions, which they stopped receiving in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

They are now entitled to the full NZ pension after successfully appealing a decision by the Ministry of Social Development to continue the direct deduction of their Russian pensions.

The decision was reviewed and upheld by the Benefits Review Committee, but now the Social Security Appeal Authority has allowed each woman’s appeal, meaning they are entitled to unabated NZ Superannuation from when they stopped receiving their Russian pension.

One is single and lives alone, for which the current pension payment (with no other income) is $1038 a fortnight.

The average amount deducted from her NZ pension was about $71 per week, depending on the exchange rate.

Her income-related rent calculation also factored in her Russian pension.

The other is married, for which the fortnightly payment is now $799, with no additional income and a partner who also qualifies for the pension.

The authority said in its decision that she and her husband received NZ Superannuation paid at the couple rate, and each had their Russian pensions deducted from this.

The amount deducted depended on the value of the rouble but the average amount deducted from her pension up until June last year was $47.30 a fortnight.

Her husband’s pension was being deducted by $60 a fortnight.

Neither of the women are named in the separate decisions issued earlier this year, but the first, from Wellington, has lived in New Zealand with her husband for about 30 years.

She has received NZ Super since 2019, reduced by the amount she received with her Russian age pension, which she has not received since April 2022.

She claimed it was having an acute effect on their household.

Up until April 2022 the woman’s Russian pension was paid into her New Zealand bank account from her Russian bank.

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, New Zealand alongside other countries adopted sanctions against Russia.

In response to the restrictions, the Russian Government suspended pension entitlements, unless strict bank account details were met, or until “restrictive measures of an economic nature” preventing the transfer of payments outside of Russia were lifted.

If that happened, Russian pension payments would be restarted and backdated, which was a point among many argued by the ministry in its preference to continue the deductions.

Each woman has agreed to enter into an arrangement to address any over-payment by way of backdated Russian payments, if and when that happens.

The woman and her husband were unable to open a bank account in Russia, and even if they had her existing bank could not transfer money to New Zealand because Russian banks were also prohibited from using the International Money Transfer System, SWIFT, to transfer money overseas.

The direct deduction policy has been in place in New Zealand since 1938 and was set up to ensure that someone who was entitled to payment from a scheme run by an overseas country should not be advantaged over a person who had spent all of their life in New Zealand.

The policy also helped to reduce funds required to support NZ Superannuation.

The authority said the central issue in each appeal concerned whether the women remained “entitled to receive” an overseas pension, and they were unable to receive their Russian pensions due to reasons well beyond their control.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.