The Ministry of Social Policy has started testing a new type of assistance for social payment recipients

The Ministry of Social Policy is working to make social payments more convenient and digital.

It's important that processing them doesn't require people to spend extra time collecting paper documents. Also, a unified approach to assigning assistance will let families avoid applying for multiple types of payments.

That's why an experiment for current social assistance recipients has been ongoing since July. The goal is to test assigning payments under a single principle of one assistance (combining several existing ones). This involves a trial mode for assigning "basic social assistance" to recipients who currently receive one or more of these types of aid:

- state social assistance for low-income families;

- state assistance for children of single mothers/fathers;

- assistance for children in large families;

- temporary state assistance for children whose parents avoid child support, can't provide for the child, or whose whereabouts are unknown.

The assistance amount is tied to a base amount. This base amount sets the minimum income level per person in a family.

So the basic social assistance amount is calculated individually (as the difference between the total base amount for all family members and the family's average monthly total income).

The base amount is 4,500 UAH and is calculated for each family member this way:

- For the first family member, each child under 18, and persons with disability groups I or II - 100% of base assistance (4,500 UAH).

- For each additional family member - 70% of base amount, with adjustments for pensioners based on work history.

For example:

• An unemployed mother with no income and a 2-year-old child, currently getting low-income family assistance and childbirth assistance, could receive 9,000 UAH total under Basic Social Assistance (currently they get 6,500 UAH).

• A family of 5 (father earning minimum wage, mother and three young kids) currently getting childbirth assistance, large-family assistance and low-income assistance would receive 14,010 UAH total under BSA (currently they get 10,500 UAH).

Families eligible for basic social assistance must choose: either get the new assistance type or keep their current "classic" types (like for large families or low-income households).

Right now basic assistance assignment is being tested. As part of this pilot, Ukraine's Pension Fund will gather feedback to see if any changes or improvements are needed. If successful, access to this program will be simplified and expanded to other recipient categories.

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