Ministry of Social Policy: School Starter Kit can now be spent on books

Starting today, October 1, new changes to the state program School Starter Kit have taken effect. The one-time assistance of UAH 5,000 can now be spent not only on stationery, children's clothing, or footwear but also on books.

With the changes now officially in place, the School Starter Kit program covers payments at retail outlets whose POS terminals have the following MCC codes: 

- 5641 — children's clothing; 

- 5651 — family clothing; 

- 5661 — shoe stores; 

- 5943 — stationery; 

- 5942 — bookstores; 

- 5192 — books, periodicals, and newspapers. 

To make it easier for parents or other legal representatives of first-graders to find stores for purchases, an online dashboard is available on the Ministry of Social Policy’s website. It includes retail outlets across Ukraine where payments can be made with the monetary assistance, and it has been updated to reflect the program’s new conditions.

Meanwhile, the number of applications for assistance has surpassed 200,000 — the majority of families applied through the Diia app (176,000), while nearly 24,000 families applied at Pension Fund of Ukraine service centers. Over 168,000 families have already received payments, with the total amount of funded assistance exceeding UAH 856 million, accounting for nearly 70% of the program’s total budget.

Applications can be submitted until November 15, 2025. Funds should be used within 180 days from the date of crediting those to your account. Payments can be made cashlessly both online and offline.

As a reminder, a new service is now available in Diia — applying for basic social assistance.

Background Information

The project was initiated by the President of Ukraine and developed by the Ministry of Social Policy, Family, and Unity, in collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Diia, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Pension Fund of Ukraine, and the State Service of Ukraine for Children’s Affairs. It is supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine under the "Diia Support Project," funded by Sweden, and the Swiss-Ukrainian DECIDE project — "Decentralization for Improved Democratic Education," implemented by a consortium of the DOCCU NGO and the Zurich University of Teacher Education, with support from Switzerland.