Social protection authorities must have access to the register of destroyed and damaged housing. Until then, payments to owners of such housing should not be suspended. This was stated by Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, during a meeting of the Coordination Centre for IDPs.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, the Ministry of Social Policy, the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Pension Fund, regional military administrations, and other agencies and organisations.

The participants of the meeting discussed, among other things, the issue of access for social protection authorities to the State Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property. This is necessary in order to continue paying benefits to people whose homes were destroyed or made uninhabitable as a result of the hostilities.

Following the discussion, Iryna Vereshchuk instructed the relevant ministries to take immediate steps to resolve the issue of access to the register for social protection agencies.

“It is unacceptable to suspend the payment of housing allowances to owners of destroyed and damaged housing. Social security departments do not currently have access to the register, but this should be resolved soon. People should continue to receive the support they are entitled to from the state,” the Deputy Prime Minister stressed.