In a commentary to Ukrinform, Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the Ombudsman's Office receives the most complaints from internally displaced persons about the deprivation of social benefits from the state and the failure to provide additional services in communities.
"First of all, we now have a huge increase in the number of appeals from IDPs - citizens of Ukraine who believe that they have been illegally deprived of the right to receive additional social assistance, namely housing allowance, which was paid for each adult and each child who lost virtually everything in the temporarily occupied territories or on the front line. And people are demanding that these payments be resumed," he said.
Lubinets reminded that since 1 March, the number of IDPs receiving such social assistance in Ukraine has been significantly reduced.
"The second most frequent request is for additional services from communities, such as enrolment of a child in a kindergarten or school. This was usually at the beginning of the educational process, the school year. Now there are much fewer such cases, it may be (ed.) when an IDP family moves from one community to another," the ombudsman added.
As reported, on 1 March, Ukraine changed the general principle of continuing payments to IDPs - from now on, the total family income will be taken into account for receiving assistance, which should not exceed UAH 9,444 per family member.
Meanwhile, the UN reported a decrease in the number of refugees and IDPs hoping to return home. Last year, the number of such refugees was 77%, while this year it is 65%.