Cabinet Resolution #492 of April 8, 2026

Who is affected: children with subgroup A disabilities; their parents and guardians; the Pension Fund; the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity.

Summary:

  • the resolution establishes a one-time payment of 6,500 UAH for each child with a subgroup A disability from Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts;
  • the funds for assistance were received from UNICEF and transferred to the humanitarian account of the Ministry of Social Policy;
  • assistance will be paid automatically: the Pension Fund independently forms lists of recipients based on data from the Unified Information System of the Social Sector and notifies them of their right to payment via the Diia application — without the need for final recipients to apply;
  • a fallback channel is established for those who did not receive the payment automatically: within 45 working days, they may apply to any territorial body of the Pension Fund, regardless of place of registration, or submit an application via Diia;
  • the payment is made to the current bank account through which state social assistance is paid;
  • persons who have already received similar assistance under the “Winter Support” program for 2025/26 will not be eligible.

What is right:

The automatic payment mechanism is an unquestionable advantage of the resolution. The state on its own identifies the recipient in the register and notifies them, instead of forcing parents of seriously ill children to go from office to office collecting certificates. For families caring for children with the most severe forms of disabilities, every additional administrative interaction is a real burden, and minimizing it is the right decision. Funding through UNICEF resources makes it possible to direct targeted international assistance directly to support the most vulnerable category of children.

What is wrong:

The geographical limitation to nine oblasts means that children with subgroup A disabilities from other oblasts — including those who were evacuated to relatively safe regions and re-registered there — are not covered by the program, even though their need for support is no less significant.

Alternative solution:

The geographical criterion should be replaced or supplemented by the criterion of the child’s actual place of residence or stay at the time of payment. This would cover evacuees from affected regions regardless of their place of registration.

What happened:

The resolution is an example of effective use of international humanitarian assistance: UNICEF funds are directed in a targeted manner to a specific and extremely vulnerable group through the existing state payment infrastructure, with minimal administrative burden on recipients. However, geographical restriction reflects not so much a flaw in this particular procedure as a broader problem: support for children with the most severe disabilities in wartime still appears to be based on ad hoc decisions rather than on a stable and predictable system.