Ukraine is tightening its legislation on social benefits and subsidies. Over the last period, the authorities have already adopted and continue to prepare a number of legislative acts in this area. The main focus is on checks on travel abroad. The possibility of depriving citizens who have been outside the country for more than 30 days of payments is being actively considered, in particular, this applies to our refugees in Europe, Strana reports in its analytical material.
Initially, such changes were made to internally displaced persons, and then to subsidy recipients. In addition, the Ministry of Economy is considering a similar project to deprive people of assistance in case of traveling abroad while receiving unemployment benefits.
It is important to note that there is already a system of automatic data exchange between the Pension Fund (which is responsible for all social payments) and the State Border Guard Service. Now, any trip abroad that lasts more than 30 days may lead to consideration of deprivation of the status of a person in need of special social protection and termination of payments. According to Andriy Zablovsky, head of the secretariat of the Council of Entrepreneurs under the Cabinet of Ministers, these changes are aimed at preventing schemes where people receive aidin Ukraine and simultaneously receive it in Europe. However, according to Oleg Popenko, an expert on the housing and communal services market, in the case of subsidies, this may lead to many Ukrainians losing compensation for communal services and will be forced to pay extremely high bills out of pocket, which threatens to further increase already high communal debts.
Vasyl Voskoboinyk, head of the All-Ukrainian Association of International Employment Agencies, noted that the difficulties for Ukrainian refugees in Ukraine against the background of the EU's agreed policies may lead to the fact that many Ukrainians may choose to stay in Europe.