A resettled woman with two children will be able to apply for state compensation

Publication date: April 5, 2023

Before the full-scale war, Kateryna* and her family lived in the Kostiantynivka community of the Mykolaiv oblast. But in March 2022, her house was destroyed by a russian missile…

The woman and her two minor children were forced to move to another settlement, more remote from hostilities, to the house of an acquaintance. The family that sheltered the IDPs received compensation from the state for the temporary accommodation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) upon application to the Department of Social Protection.

However, in January 2023, the family received a message from the Social Security Administration that the community in which Kateryna lived before the start of the war was excluded from the list of communities located in the war zone. Accordingly, compensation payments are suspended…

This is exactly the story heard from the resettled woman by the employees of the Mykolaiv NGO “Time to Gather Ukrainians”, to whom Kateryna turned for help in February 2023.  

The deputy head of the organization, lawyer Vadym Zhepalo, explained to the woman that in accordance with the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated March 19, 2022, No. 333 “On approval of the Procedure for compensation of costs for temporary accommodation of internally displaced persons who moved during the period of martial law”, the state compensates costs related to the free temporary accommodation of internally displaced persons whose housing is destroyed or unfit for habitation due to damage.

• It is important that information about such housing be entered into the State Register of Property Damaged and Destroyed as a result of hostilities, acts of terrorism, and sabotage caused by military aggression of the russian federation. Therefore, a woman could use such a right, the lawyer explains.

However, unfortunately, Kateryna did not have documentary proof that her house was destroyed. She did not receive an act of fixing damaged property from local self-government bodies on the fact of damage/destruction of real estate as a result of hostilities.

The head of the organization, lawyer Vitalii Okhrymenko, helped the client prepare a written appeal to the Kostiantynivka settlement council and the police body and also contributed to the woman receiving an act of recording property damage and making a request for an extract from the Unified State Register of Pretrial Investigations.

After receiving these documents, the resettled woman already had reason to apply to the social protection department for payment of compensation for expenses related to free temporary accommodation of IDPs.

Currently, the specified appeal is under consideration, and lawyers are providing legal support for Kateryna’s case.

*Name has been changed for ethical reasons.

The material was created within the framework of the “Regional Coordinators” Initiative. The initiative is launched with the support of the international charity platform GlobalGiving and the Legal Empowerment Fund (Fund for Global Human Rights program) and the Legal Development Network.

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