Basic social assistance instead of several payments — Parliament adopted the law
Kyiv • UNN
Parliament supported basic social assistance for low-income families instead of several payments. The law will take effect on January 1, 2028.
On October 13, the Verkhovna Rada adopted as a whole a bill providing for the introduction of a new type of state social assistance—a basic social assistance payment to replace several other payments, an UNN correspondent reports.
Details
Bill No. 15094, "On Basic Social Assistance," was supported in the second reading and as a whole by 247 members of parliament.
The document stipulates that "basic social assistance" is a monthly payment provided to a low-income family in cash, the amount of which depends on the average monthly aggregate income of the family and the property status of its members.
The concept of a "base amount" is also introduced—a statutory monetary indicator used to determine the amount of basic social assistance and established by the Law on the State Budget of Ukraine for the relevant year.
It should be noted that on September 15, the Cabinet of Ministers submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a draft State Budget for 2027. According to the document, among other things, it is proposed to establish that in 2027 the base amount used to calculate the amount of state social assistance for persons with disabilities since childhood and children with disabilities, as well as state social assistance and the care allowance, will be 4,000 hryvnias.
Who will be able to receive basic social assistance
"The right to basic social assistance is granted to Ukrainian citizens who belong to a low-income family or a family in a crisis situation and who permanently reside in Ukraine," the bill states.
Foreigners and stateless persons who legally permanently reside in Ukraine, as well as persons recognized in Ukraine as refugees or persons in need of additional protection, will also have the right to basic social assistance. In addition, Polish citizens who are legally present in Ukraine will have the right to basic social assistance on an equal basis with Ukrainian citizens.
How to apply for basic social assistance
A family representative will be able to submit an application for the appointment of basic social assistance:
- through a CNAP;
- through an authorized structural unit (authorized official) of the executive body of a council (in the absence of a center for the provision of administrative services);
- through “Diia”;
- through the service center of the body that assigns basic social assistance;
- by mail.
The transition to this assistance will be carried out exclusively upon the recipient’s application. Basic social assistance will not be assigned if its calculated amount is lower than the amount of state support that the family or individual was receiving on the date of application.
The application for the appointment of basic social assistance must be accompanied by the written consent of each adult family member to the processing of personal data, the initial assessment of the family’s needs for social services, and their obligations to fulfill the conditions of the social contract for the appointment of basic social assistance.
MP Olena Shuliak said that since July 1, 2025, Ukraine has already been implementing a pilot project providing basic social assistance that has combined several types of payments. These include assistance to low-income families, assistance to single mothers, assistance to large families, payments for children whose parents do not pay child support, as well as assistance to persons who are not entitled to a pension and to persons with disabilities. The new bill establishes this model on a permanent basis, taking into account the results of the pilot project.
Shuliak explained that the new model provides for a case-management method: each low-income family will be given an individual support plan based on an assessment of its actual needs. At the same time, the application-based principle, under which a family applies for assistance on its own, will be supplemented by the community’s active identification of such families.
The transitional provisions of the bill state that it will enter into force on the day following the day of its publication and will come into effect on January 1, 2028.
At the same time, from January 1, 2028, to December 31, 2028, families eligible to receive state social assistance for low-income families, assistance for children of single mothers, assistance for children raised in large families, temporary state assistance for children whose parents evade paying alimony, are unable to support the child, or whose place of residence is unknown, and state social assistance for persons who are not entitled to a pension and persons with disabilities, shall be entitled to apply for basic social assistance, provided that the payment of the specified types of assistance is terminated in accordance with the procedure established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
We remind you
A new service for applying for basic social assistance has been launched in "Diia"; it will replace five different payments. This pilot project is designed to run for two years, while the government is working to make it permanent.