Benefits for utility services: what has changed, who is eligible, how to apply

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the topic of paying for communal services for millions of Ukrainians has acquired not only a financial, but also an acute social dimension. After losing their home, job or stable income, many citizens found themselves in a situation where even basic household expenses became an excessive burden. In this context, the system of benefits and subsidies, which existed before, took on a new meaning. However, at the same time, it has become more complicated: the grounds for providing benefits have changed, the appointment mechanisms have been revised, additional conditions have appeared for some categories, and the financing itself has undergone changes against the background of the budget sequestration. Now many citizens are faced with questions: who has the right to what? Has the legal basis, according to which benefits for the payment of communal services are assigned, changed?

The editors of IA “FACT” turned to specialized lawyers of the “Repeshko and Partners” bar association to find out what rules are currently in effect, who is entitled to benefits when paying for communal services, how discounts are calculated and what is important to know when applying to social security authorities.

Guaranteed support of the state for vulnerable sections of the population is a basic principle of a legal democratic state. Such programs have been working on the territory of Ukraine for decades. But the war made its corrections, devastating the state budget. It is precisely in connection with this fact that the official bodies had to revise the principles of support for citizens who are entitled to benefits from the payment of communal services.

From January 1, 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine changed the approach to providing benefits for the payment of housing and communal services. The fact is that by its resolution No. 1553 dated December 31, 2024, the government introduced a unified approach to providing benefits for housing and communal services – the main criterion was the average monthly total income of the family. Thus, benefits for the payment of housing and communal services are currently provided on the condition that the amount of the average monthly total family income per person for the previous 6 months does not exceed the amount of income that gives the right to a tax social benefit. That is, it does not exceed UAH 4,240.

The specified changes apply:

• from January 1, 2025 – for persons who applied for benefits in 2025;
• after the end of the heating season of 2024/2025 – for persons who received benefits in the period up to and including December 31, 2024.

Therefore, those citizens who were previously assigned benefits will receive them until the end of the 2024-2025 heating season, that is, after April 30, 2025 inclusive, and the changes will affect them from the new heating season.

It should be noted that the following payments are covered by the benefit from the payment of communal services:

• for the use of housing (apartment rent, payment for services for the maintenance of buildings and structures and adjacent territories),
• apartment building management,
• communal services (centralized cold water supply, centralized hot water supply, drainage, heat and electricity supply, natural gas (including transportation, distribution and supply services, centralized heating, household waste removal), fuel, liquefied gas,
• telephone, services for installing apartment telephones.

As for the preferential categories of citizens who are entitled to benefits for the payment of communal services, provided that their income does not exceed UAH 4,240, these are the following:

1. According to the Law of Ukraine “On the status and social protection of citizens affected by the Chernobyl disaster”:

• persons who suffered as a result of the Chernobyl disaster are classified as category 3;
• wives (husbands) and guardians (for the duration of guardianship) of children of deceased citizens from among participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl NPP, classified as category 3, whose death is related to the Chernobyl disaster;
• families who have a child with a disability, whose disability is related to the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster;
• children affected by the Chernobyl disaster;
• persons who worked from the moment of the accident until July 1, 1986. not less than 14 calendar days or not less than three months during 1986-1987 outside the exclusion zone in works with particularly harmful working conditions (in terms of the radiation factor) related to the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, which were carried out under government tasks,
• persons who suffered as a result of the Chernobyl disaster, assigned to category 1;
• persons who suffered as a result of the Chernobyl disaster, classified as category 2;
• to the wives (husbands) of deceased citizens whose death is related to the Chernobyl disaster or guardians (for the duration of guardianship) of the children of the deceased;
• to wives (husbands), if she (he) has not remarried, of deceased citizens whose death is connected with participation in the liquidation of other nuclear accidents, in nuclear tests, in military exercises with the use of nuclear weapons, in the assembly of nuclear charges and carrying out regulatory work on them.

1. According to the Law of Ukraine “On the status of war veterans, guarantees of their social protection”:

• participants in the war; persons who have special merits for the Motherland;
• widows (widowers) and parents of deceased persons who have special merits for the Motherland.

1. According to the Law of Ukraine “On the basic principles of social protection of labor veterans and other senior citizens in Ukraine”:

• labor veterans;
• persons who have special labor merits for the Motherland;
• widows (widowers) and parents of deceased persons who have special labor merits for the Motherland.

1. According to the Law of Ukraine  “About education” – pensioners who previously worked as teachers in rural areas and urban-type settlements and live there.
2. According to the Basics of the legislation of Ukraine on health care – pensioners who previously worked as medical and pharmaceutical workers in rural areas and urban-type settlements and live in such settlements,
3. According to the Law of Ukraine “About libraries and librarianship” – pensioners who previously worked in libraries in rural areas and urban-type settlements and live there).
4. According to the Law of Ukraine “On plant protection” – pensioners who worked in the field of plant protection in rural areas and live there.
5. According to the Law of Ukraine “About the victims of Nazi persecution”:

• former prisoners of concentration camps, ghettos and other places of forced detention during the Second World War;
• persons who were forcibly deported for forced labor to the territory of Germany or its allies, which were at war with the former Soviet Union of the SSR, or to the territory of other states occupied by Germany;
• children of partisans, underground, other participants in the struggle against the National Socialist regime behind enemy lines, who were subjected to repression, physical violence, and persecution in connection with the patriotic activities of their parents;
• wives (husbands) of deceased victims of Nazi persecution, recognized for life as persons with disabilities from a general illness, occupational disability and for other reasons, who did not remarry.

1. According to the Law of Ukraine  “On the protection of childhood” – large families, family-type children’s homes and foster families in which three or more children live for at least a year, families in which three or more children live for at least a year, taking into account those who have been placed under guardianship or guardianship.
2. According to the Law of Ukraine  “On social protection of children of war”, child soldiers are entitled to a 25% discount. We will remind, “a child of war is considered a person who is a citizen of Ukraine and who was less than 18 years old at the time of the end (September 2, 1945) of the Second World War.”
3. According to the Law of Ukraine  “About culture” – pensioners who previously worked in state and communal cultural institutions, educational institutions in the field of culture in rural areas and urban settlements and live in them.
4. In accordance Civil Protection Code of Ukraine:

• parents and family members of non-commissioned and senior members of the civil defense service who died (died) or went missing during the performance of official duties;
• persons dismissed from the civil defense service due to age, illness or seniority and who became disabled during the performance of official duties.

1. According to the Law of Ukraine “On Rehabilitation of Victims of Repressions of the Communist Totalitarian Regime of 1917-1991” – rehabilitated persons who became disabled as a result of repressions or are pensioners.
2. According to the Law of Ukraine “On social and legal protection of military personnel and their family members”:

• persons released from military service who became disabled during military service;
• parents and family members of military personnel who died (died) or went missing during military service.

1. According to the Law of Ukraine “On the status of military service veterans, veterans of internal affairs bodies, veterans of the National Police and some other persons and their social protection”:

• veterans of the military service, internal affairs bodies, the National Police, the tax police, the Bureau of Economic Security, the State Fire Service, the State Criminal Enforcement Service, the Civil Defense Service, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection;
• to widows (widowers) of deceased (deceased) veterans of military service, internal affairs bodies, the National Police, the tax police, the Bureau of Economic Security, the State Fire Service, the State Criminal Enforcement Service, the Civil Defense Service, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection.

1. According to the Law of Ukraine “On Victims of Nazi Persecution”:

• former minors (under 18 at the time of imprisonment) prisoners of concentration camps, ghettos, other places of forced detention, created by fascist Germany and its allies during the Second World War, as well as children born in said places of forced detention of their parents;
• former minors (who were under 14 years old at the time of imprisonment) prisoners of concentration camps, ghettos and other places of forced detention, recognized as disabled from a general illness, work-related disability and for other reasons.

1. According to the Law of Ukraine “On Restoring the Rights of Persons Deported on the Basis of Nationality” – deported persons who have reached retirement age or are persons with disabilities.

At the same time, it is worth knowing that the norm on a unified approach does not apply to participants in hostilities and persons with disabilities as a result of war. For them, the approach to providing benefits does not change.

You should also know that the family members of the beneficiary at the time of granting benefits include persons to whom benefits are extended according to legislative acts:

• wife (husband);
• their minor children (under 18);
• unmarried adult children recognized as persons with disabilities from childhood of the I and II groups or persons with disabilities of the I group;
• disabled parents;
• a person who is under the care or custody of the beneficiary and lives with him.

During the provision of benefits, the total income of the family of the beneficiary includes accrued:

1) pension;

2) salary;

3) financial security;

4) scholarship;

5) social assistance (except part of child birth assistance, which is paid once, part of child adoption assistance, which is paid once, funeral assistance, one-time assistance, which is provided in accordance with legislation or by decisions of executive authorities and local governments, enterprises, organizations regardless of the form of ownership; one-time state cash assistance “Winter Support”;

6) income from entrepreneurial activity;

7) unemployment benefits and other payments made by social insurance funds.

We remind you that in case of refusal to grant this benefit, it is possible to challenge it in a court of law to the district administrative court.