The Ministry of Social Policy, after verification of internally displaced persons, stopped payments to more than 140,000 people who did not meet the criteria. This reduced spending by 400 million per month, said Social Policy Minister Oksana Zholnovych, Forbes reports.
The IDP checks took place after the government amended a decree in August that a person who stays abroad for more than 30 days without valid reasons (medical treatment, business trips, etc.) loses the right to payments.
According to the minister, about 112,000 people were identified. For the budget, this means a reduction in expenditures by about 400 million per month, Zholnovych said.
“There was a case when a person received assistance from the state for almost a year and at the same time bought a Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 2023, which cost more than UAH 9.5 million,” Zholnovych said.
Currently, such verification is ongoing. The ministry also conducts monthly checks on people who have returned to their permanent housing or have their own housing.
“There were more than 12,000 of them. Another 9,500 were found dead, and another 9,800 had duplicate payments, meaning that a person received payments in several communities,” the Minister of Social Policy said.
The Ministry recorded about 250 people who made transactions worth more than UAH 100,000. Another 80 people bought apartments or land plots for more than UAH 100,000.
According to the Ministry of Social Policy, 5 million people have received assistance as IDPs during the full-scale war. This is one of the largest programs of the Ministry. In 2022, more than 1.8 million people received assistance, for which UAH 57 billion was allocated from the state budget. The next year’s budget is approximately the same amount, says the head of the Ministry of Social Policy.
