Social protection bodies and special commissions responsible for taking decision on granting housing and utilities subsidy must take into account all life circumstances of people applying for government assistance. This was stated by Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman during the visit of the Government contact center.

Government contact center is a special Government’s hotline (15-45) of communication with citizens allowing them to receive information from authorities. Typically, the spectrum of appeals is not limited to one topic. However, now the issue of subsidies makes up one-third of all appeals.

The Head of Government personally responded to several appeals from citizens. He considered separate appeals along with Minister of Social Policy Andrii Reva, who also visited the call center.

"It is impossible to replace real-life communication. However, the fact that I talked to people is of utmost importance to me. I have heard how they live and how I can help. People can talk about both systemic problems, and about personal things, individual conditions. I have said before and I will repeat:  social security bodies should benefit the citizens interests. Our task is to protect everyone. But you can only do this if you hear and understand a person who has problems", Volodymyr Groysman stressed.

Background

The Cabinet of Ministers simplified the procedure for granting subsidies and included a sum worth UAH 55 billion for the subsidy program  in the draft budget for 2019. The Prime Minister stressed that will be enough to provide targeted assistance to people. According to the Government’s estimates,  7 million households are entitled to a subsidy in this heating season. The final data on the number of people receiving a subsidy during the heating season can be obtained in December. The average weekly number of applications for subsidies is currently around 100 thousand.