The citizens who have been laid off during a period of restrictive measures will receive a housing subsidy. This decision was made today at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.

“The Government understands the responsibility and does its utmost to mitigate the effect of the restrictive measures for the citizens and the economy of Ukraine. In particular, we have provided all the conditions for reducing the gas price by taking a decision to reduce the wholesale gas price by 14%. We look forward to making respective decisions in the regions. Today, we are increasing subsidies for payment of utility bills and simplifying the procedure of providing. On average, the increase in subsidies for each Ukrainian family will be approximately UAH 300,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, adding that the mechanism should come in effect after the adoption of the Stabilization Fund Law by the Verkhovna Rada.

The Government's resolution stipulates, in particular, that in order to receive a subsidy, citizens who have lost their jobs during the quarantine period must be registered with the Employment Service as unemployed. Subsidies will be provided on the basis of relevant applications and information from employment centers regarding their registration.

At that, for the calculation of the housing subsidy, the amount of the assigned unemployment benefit is taken into account, without taking into account the wages received.

The cessation of housing subsidies is also prohibited during the quarantine period. In addition, a housing subsidy for the next period will be assigned to all households that received it in the heating period 2019-2020, without the need from the citizens to apply for the subsidy.

Moreover, for the period of quarantine, housing subsidies will be calculated taking into account the increased social standards by 50 percent due to increased forced stay and increased consumption of electricity, natural gas, hot water etc.

Besides, at the initiative of the Ministry of Social Policy, the base rate of payment for utilities was decided not to increase from May 1.

“We have a base rate for utility bills which is 15%. This is how the subsidy is calculated these days. But from May 1, it was planned to fix 20%. We propose to leave 15%, with the view of re-assigning subsidies to all the households, and in a bid of not losing our social targeting,” emphasized Minister of Social Policy Maryna Lazebna.