“I’ll reach out to them, perhaps they’ll help!” Armed with this hope, Anna sought out our Foundation for a free legal consultation. For nearly a year, her efforts to reclaim her social benefits had been fruitless. Our team was able to identify the roadblock and set in motion the process to recover the money she was owed.
With Anna’s permission, we are shedding light on her experience, as it mirrors the plight of numerous Ukrainians.
Anna, an IDP from Izium, Kharkivska Oblast, was forced to evacuate her city with her young daughter due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. In Izium, she was a beneficiary of social support for single mothers and low-income families. She updated her benefit registration in February of the previous year, but the funds never made their way to her account. A full-scale war broke out.
Since April 2022, Anna and her daughter have found refuge in Poltava. Here, she registered as an IDP and applied for the benefits designated to her in Izium. The local Department of Social Protection promptly initiated payments, but the accrual period began in June when her application was submitted. The payouts for February, March, April, and May were never received.
“They made it clear from the outset that Poltava would not cover Izium’s arrears, arguing that the city bore no responsibility for them. They suggested I wait until Izium was liberated, and then we could sort out the payment. So I waited,” recounts Anna.
When Izyum was eventually liberated, Anna reached out to the local Administrative Service Center. However, they insisted she had to submit an application in person. She returned home for a single day in December, presented her paperwork, and the waiting resumed.
By the end of March 2023, she was informed that the recovery of her benefits from Izium was impossible due to technical difficulties: “They stated that my case was no longer in Izium, but transferred to Poltava and that the debt should be settled there.” At the same time, officials from the Poltava branch continually requested additional certificates and photocopies while insisting they didn’t possess her documents. Anna felt hopeless.
In April, after numerous hotline calls, Anna stumbled upon an ad for our Foundation offering free legal advice and decided to take a chance. The following day, Yuliya Honcharenko, a social specialist for the project in the Poltaska Oblast, reached out to her. Anna relayed the intricacies of her case and requested help.
In collaboration with Svitlana Ludan, the project’s regional social specialist in Kharkivska Oblast, Yuliya approached the Izium Department of Social Protection for a record of Anna’s benefits and the extent of the arrears. It was discovered that Anna’s case file had been misplaced: it was registered in the district database despite Anna living and being registered in the city of Izium.
Owing to the diligent efforts of the project team, the social payments were promptly reinstated: in May, Anna was able to collect the four months’ worth of benefits she was owed.
“Thank you for your tremendous effort. I am deeply grateful to Yuliya Honcharenko for her compassion and guidance. She provided reassurance and made sense of the whole situation. I know of many women from Izium who were displaced across Ukraine. I informed all of them about your organization and your fantastic lawyers, and encouraged them to seek help,” Anna says.
We are genuinely delighted to have been able to aid this family in securing their rights and reclaiming their rightful benefits.
If you, as a result of internal displacement, require legal counsel on IDP registration, restoration of documents, or allocation of social benefits and services, please fill out this brief form: https://bit.ly/3jHq2eg.
Our consultants will reach out to you and offer professional legal assistance.
We provide free legal assistance to affected individuals as part of the project Supporting the Capacity of the Social Protection System to Register Internally Displaced Persons, financed by the UN Refugee Agency in Ukraine.