On May 9, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution introducing the “money follows the child” mechanism when paying for health and recreation services for children in need of special social attention and support. The mechanism will be implemented as part of an experimental project that will allow testing the proposed mechanism of monetization of such payments.
From now on, families with children who find themselves in the most difficult conditions – live in the territories that were under temporary occupation, are in the zone of active hostilities, are on the border with the Russian Federation * (the list is given below), are low-income and have children who belong to to such categories as a child with a disability (capable of self-care) or a child from a large family will be able to receive funds for recovery and recreation.
Parents (persons replacing them) of children who meet the above criteria will receive a notification of the right to receive funds to pay for health and recreation services by electronic message.
In particular, if the recipient of budget assistance has the Diya mobile application installed on an electronic medium, he will automatically receive a message about the possibility of receiving budget assistance.
In order to use the service, parents (persons who replace them) in which such children live, will be able to receive a card with a special mode of use, which will be credited with funds in the amount of five subsistence minimums (14,165 UAH) for children aged 6-18 years.
Parents (persons replacing them) will be able to use this money to purchase a ticket for the child’s recovery or recreation in one of the higher category camps located in the Carpathian region (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia, Chernivtsi, Ternopil regions).
The funds can be used in one of the institutions included in the State Register of children’s health and recreation facilities. There are currently 16 children’s health facilities on this register that meet the above criteria.
The project will start on June 1. Children aged 7-18 will be able to get better under the program. So, already from the beginning of summer, families whose children meet the above criteria will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to improve the health of their children in the Carpathians.
“The goal of the Ministry is to provide support to the least protected segments of the population. The automatic extension of the project to all children from these categories, a transparent system of payment of funds for rehabilitation and recreation to their parents, a significant expansion of the number of providers of rehabilitation services and market competition will contribute to ensuring the proper quality of services and, accordingly, efficient spending of public funds. In 2023, we plan to provide these services to about 25,000 children at the expense of the State Budget,” said First Deputy Minister of Social Policy Daryna Marchak.
In addition, the Ministry of Social Policy continues the opportunity to rehabilitate children in the “Artek” International Camp. The selection of children for rehabilitation in this camp will take place according to the “traditional” approach – vouchers for rehabilitation will be distributed by social security departments in local communities.
We also draw your attention to the fact that the Ministry of Social Policy is expanding opportunities for the rehabilitation of children, particularly orphans, through cooperation with international partners.
Thus, the Ministry has already agreed on opportunities for the recovery of Ukrainian children, and is currently forming specific programs for their recovery in cooperation with governments and non-governmental partners in Portugal, Spain, Norway, Japan, the Czech Republic and Poland. This will further expand the state’s opportunities for rest and rehabilitation of Ukrainian children from the most vulnerable categories abroad, without using budget funds, with full payment of such rehabilitation at the expense of the host country’s funds and/or donor funds.
* the list of territories includes Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernihiv, and Kyiv regions*. Priority in the rehabilitation of children under this project from the specified regions is given due to the fact that the regions are in the zone of active hostilities, were under temporary occupation or on the border with the Russian Federation and are subject to active artillery shelling.
Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine