People who have fled from Ukraine’s Donbas and Crimea to government-controlled areas should be re-registered to crack down on suspected aid fraud, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said during a cabinet meeting on Aug. 19.
The prime minister said he was seriously concerned that the 1.4 million figure of officially registered internally displaced persons in Ukraine was greatly overblown.
At the cabinet meeting, Yatsenyuk said Interior Minister Arsen Avakov should check the actual residences of internationally displaced persons against the places they indicated on their certificates of eligibility for social benefits.
“Some of them continue to live on territories occupied by separatists, but come to Ukraine to get state aid. And that’s Hr 884 per person per month. Big money,” said Yatsenyuk.
The prime minister said the state should establish which war refugees actually do require Ukrainian government help, and which are abusing the state’s aid.
There have been previous concerns that state aid to internally displaced person was being abused in Ukraine: Former Minister for Social Issues Lyudmyla Denysova at a press conference at the beginning of 2015 said there were three times more applicants for state aid than the number of those who were officially registered as IDPs.
And in March the government ordered the local authorities to check information provided by IDPs about their current place of residence.
Kyiv Post writer Veronika Melkozerova can be reached at [email protected]
