As of Sunday morning, December 15, more than 9 million people have already applied for thousands of hryvnias as part of the Winter eSupport program, including 2 million children. This was reported by Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Nadiia Bihun on Suspilne TV, UNN reports.
According to her, the main channel for submitting applications is Diia. According to Bigun, the funds should be credited within 10 days from the date of application.
The second application channel is through 8 partner banks, a list of which is available on the Ministry of Economy's website. Only citizens aged 65 and over, as well as citizens who do not have an individual tax number due to religious beliefs, can apply through a bank.
And the third payment channel is Ukrposhta. You do not need to submit an application through Ukrposhta.
"If we count the people to whom the state pays support through Ukrposhta, it is 1.9 million, plus 7.3 million applications submitted through Diia, a total of 9.2 million of our citizens who receive winter support," the official said.
According to Bigun, payments for applications submitted through Diia have already been made for December 1, 2, and 3. That is, those who applied on those three days have already received payments.
"This is UAH 4.4 billion in payments to cards. Accordingly, for those who receive through Ukrposhta, there is UAH 1.9 billion. This payment has already started on December 4. And it continues. By the end of the month, all those who are supposed to receive payments through Ukrposhta will receive them," said Bihun.
Add
The official also said that the agency monitors where the funds are spent. And accordingly, there is up-to-date data.
According to her, as of the end of the day on December 14, people transferred almost UAH 860 million for utilities, UAH 239 million for Internet and telecommunications services, and almost UAH 55 million for charity and the needs of the Armed Forces.
According to a representative of the Ministry of Economy, these are the top three categories in which people spend money.
Ms. Bigun explained that the bank has set up all the tools to ensure that payments are made for services or goods produced in Ukraine for the purposes envisaged by the program.
According to her, an analytics and tracking system has been built to ensure that the program works correctly and that there is no abuse.
"At the beginning of the program, we saw that the volume of transfers from several mobile operators had grown significantly. And then we found out that these mobile operators offer a service that allows you to withdraw these funds in cash from your mobile operator's account, actually to another card, and then to cash. Therefore, we actively took measures in just a couple of hours to close this model of using the program. Because the purpose of the program is not only to support the population. It is also about economic development," the official explained.
