Legal aid helped a displaced woman restore the right to government assistance
In December, Olha*, a resident of Kupiansk, contacted the Caritas Kharkiv Charitable Organization for legal assistance. Olha had recently relocated to Kharkiv from an area of active hostilities and was living in a dormitory for IDPs. Her main sources of income were her pension and the state subsistence allowance for IDPs.
Olha received one-off charitable assistance under a humanitarian programme supporting people affected by the war. She used the funds to purchase medicines and food and cover other essential expenses.
Following this, the payment of her state subsistence allowance for IDPs was suspended. When Olha contacted the Pension Fund of Ukraine, she was informed that the reason was the charitable assistance she had received.
Disagreeing with this decision, Olha sought free legal assistance from Andrii, a lawyer. During the consultation, he carefully reviewed her situation, explained the legislation governing the calculation of income for the purposes of social assistance, and clarified that receiving humanitarian or charitable assistance does not in itself always constitute grounds for terminating social assistance payments.
The lawyer helped Olha prepare a legally substantiated application to the Pension Fund of Ukraine requesting an official explanation of the grounds for suspending the payments, referring to the relevant provisions of the legislation and, in the absence of lawful grounds for the suspension, requesting that the subsistence allowance be reinstated and recalculated.
With the legal support she received, Olha was able to have her payments reinstated and receive the outstanding amounts for the period during which the payments had been suspended.
This case demonstrates the importance of timely legal assistance for internally displaced people. Such support can help people navigate complex administrative procedures, protect their social rights and engage more effectively with public authorities.
* The name has been changed to protect personal data.
Free legal assistance in Kharkiv Oblast was made possible through the partnership between the Caritas Kharkiv Charitable Organization and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), with funding from the European Union.
