At an extraordinary meeting on April 27, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine amended the program for the allocation of subsidies, which will begin to function from the next heating season. In particular, those citizens who hide their status or have disguised employment can not take advantage of subsidies.
According to the government portal, subsidies will be monetized in the next heating season, that is, beneficiaries will be able to retain funds, saved as a result of economical consumption.
By its changes, the government will reduce cases of abuse of subsidies.
“Those who really need help will receive it in future. However, the people who simply hide their status, will not be able to use the program and freeload at the expense of taxpayers,” – the Cabinet noted.
Luxury goods, large living space and other incomes
In megacities, there were frequent cases of renting an apartment with a kind of bonus – with a registered subsidy for public utilities. In this case, the owners of housing not only earn an income, but also have vehicles or other luxuries.
Now if the family owns a car that is less than five years old, except motorbike and the car provided by the social protection body, then the subsidy is not assigned.
In addition, the income from the rental of property, in particular, from the rental of an apartment, will now also need to be indicated in income declarations – in the new column “other income”.
From May 1, 2018, a new rule comes into effect: the subsidy is canceled if the area an apartment exceeds 120 square meters, and the area of a house – 200 square meters, except for family-type children's homes and foster families. The owners of such living space will pay for the services in full.
Disguised employment
In order to receive a subsidy, unemployed will need to register at the employment center. For people of working age applying for a subsidy, but not registered as unemployed due to work without registration in Ukraine or abroad, the social security authorities automatically consider as income of minimum subsistence level – that is, 5286 UAH.
In order to stimulate energy saving from May 1, the social norm for gas heating will be approximated to the real volumes of consumption and will be 4.5 cubic meters per 1 sq. meter of area, electric heating – 30 kW per 1 sq. meter. When assigning a subsidy for overtime, the norm can be increased by no more than 30%.
Internally displaced persons will now be able to formalize a subsidy without a rental agreement – only on the basis of an application and declaration, indicating household composition.
The Cabinet also simplified the procedure for receiving subsidies for residents of joint territorial communities. From now on, joint territorial communities have the right to receive documents from citizens for issuing a subsidy for transferring it to the social protection bodies. The mechanism repeats the practice of applying to village and town councils.
