Draft Law #16096 of September 23, 2026

Initiators: 12 members of parliament from the “Servant of the People” faction and the “Dovira” parliamentary group, led by Maksym Tkachenko.

Stage: under consideration in the Committee on Human Rights, Deoccupation and Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations.

Who is affected: internally displaced persons (IDPs) and their children born after displacement; owners of housing in temporarily occupied territories or in areas of active hostilities; people who need care, and those who provide them with care or free accommodation; local self-government bodies; the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine; the State Employment Service.

Summary:

  • replaces the term “internally displaced person” with “forcibly internally displaced person” and clarifies the definition of the status;
  • provides for registering as an IDP a child born after the displacement of one or both parents, upon application by the parents or a legal representative;
  • guarantees that state social payments to IDPs are not lower than the basic social assistance for the relevant family;
  • during the first six months after displacement, assistance is paid regardless of income level;
  • the purchase of unfinished housing or a land plot worth up to UAH 2 million, or a deposit of up to UAH 2 million, cannot serve as grounds for terminating assistance;
  • payments may be suspended or terminated only if the recipient is notified at least ten days in advance, with the grounds for the decision and the procedure for appealing it specified;
  • defines the rental housing subsidy as non-repayable targeted financial assistance, and allows IDPs to renounce ownership of housing in occupied territory or in an area of hostilities in favor of the state in exchange for compensation for lost housing. A notarized renunciation serves as grounds for terminating ownership in the register and entering the information into the State Register of Damaged and Destroyed Property;
  • creates a support system that includes a Coordination Center for the Support of Forcibly Internally Displaced Persons with territorial branches that are not legal entities, an individual support pathway with the person’s consent, and support specialists; it also provides for a single-entry principle, an electronic pathway record, and a prohibition on requesting documents already held in state registers;
  • introduces a one-time payment to employment intermediaries for each IDP placed in employment: one minimum wage after the employment contract is signed and two after six months of continuous employment, with coefficients of 1.2 and 1.5 for sectors facing labor shortages. At the 2026 rate, this amounts to approximately UAH 26,000, and with the maximum coefficient approximately UAH 39,000 per person;
  • allows non-professional care to be provided by people who are not family members but have stable social ties with the person or live nearby; introduces compensation of two minimum wages for a person who provides care and free accommodation to someone without housing (for up to two recipients), and one minimum wage for a person who provides their own housing;
  • obliges the Cabinet of Ministers, within one month of the law’s entry into force, to bring regulations into line with it and to determine the amount and sources of funding needed to implement the law, in particular for the establishment and operation of the Coordination Center and its territorial branches.

What is right:

  • the proposed mechanism simplifies IDPs’ access to support and reduces the administrative burden of applying to different bodies and resubmitting the same documents. The single-entry principle, the prohibition on re-requesting information already held in state registers, and the provision of support only with the person’s consent form a comprehensive approach that also covers preparation for voluntary return;
  • mandatory advance notice of the suspension or termination of payments, specifying the grounds and the appeal procedure, strengthens the procedural safeguards for recipients of assistance;
  • registering children born after a family’s displacement ensures that children from the same family have equal access to the rights and guarantees associated with IDP status, regardless of whether they were born before or after displacement;
  • the statutory definition of the rental subsidy clarifies its legal nature, while tying funding to specific results — the signing of a contract, six months of employment, and payment of the unified social contribution — orients the program toward actual employment rather than mere participation;
  • the exception for caregivers takes into account situations in which residents of frontline communities need constant assistance because no family members live nearby.