Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk commissioned the Ministry of Social Policy to urgently prepare a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on the increase of welfare standards by 6%, which would envisage automatic increases in wages and pensions without unnecessary bureaucratic procedures. This issue was considered during an extraordinary Government’s meeting on Monday, March 21.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk reminded that the Government had taken a decision to carry out the first stage of raising social standards from May 1 – by 6%. The Parliament upheld this decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, recalled the Head of the Government.

"Unfortunately, the procedure is entwined with bureaucracy and so tedious that last year when we raised wages and pensions by 13% and 19% respectively, it took weeks to issue dozens or rather hundreds of orders to ensure people receiving improved social standards", said Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Given this, the Prime Minister instructed Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko to immediately ready a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the increase of social standards by 6%: "This regulation should provide for automatic increase in social standards avoiding signing hundreds of different kinds of orders by the line Ministries".

"The Ministry of Finance has the appropriate resource in the state budget so that from May the citizens of the country could obtain higher social payments," he stressed.

"This is the first stage. But in general, throughout the year we will have an increase of 12%," said the Head of Government.