Ukraine plans to increase payments at the birth of a child: a new initiative in the context of the demographic crisis
After the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia, Ukraine lost not only a part of its territories, but also a part of its future – in the literal sense. From 2022, the birth rate in the country will decrease even more rapidly than in previous years. Forced emigration, psychological instability, economic vulnerability of young families, as well as the destruction of maternity homes, schools, and medical infrastructure in the frontline regions have caused a situation that demographers already directly call catastrophic. The authorities are beginning to formulate systemic policies that should at least partially compensate for those losses. The key component of this policy became the initiatives of People’s Deputy Danylo Hetmantsev, who reported on the draft law on the increase of one-time assistance at the birth of a child, as well as the creation of a long-term support system for families with children.
New amounts of payments and arguments of the initiator
According to the draft law, which is currently under discussion, Ukrainian families are offered significantly higher amounts of birth allowance:
– for the first child – from 50 to 75 thousand hryvnias;
– for the second – about 125 thousand hryvnias;
– for the third – up to 175 thousand hryvnias.
According to Danylo Hetmantsev, the purpose of such a step is to overcome the demographic crisis. He said that today’s situation does not require rhetoric from the state, but practical solutions, and the increase in payments is a concrete signal to young families that the state is ready to invest in the birth of children.
Previous experience: the 2021 initiative and changing context
This is not Hetmantsev’s first attempt to introduce large-scale changes in the field of birth payments. In 2021, the deputy already introduced a draft law that provided for 50 thousand hryvnias for the first child, 100 thousand for the second and 150 thousand for the third. Then the project did not gain support in the Verkhovna Rada.
Now, in the conditions of war, economic uncertainty and mass depopulation, the same deputy is convinced that it has become not only more urgent, but also politically expedient to make the appropriate decision. He specified that the indexation of sums to the level of 75-175 thousand hryvnias corresponds to the realities of 2025. The total costs of implementing the initiative are estimated at 12 billion hryvnias per year — and, according to him, this does not exceed the state budget’s capabilities.
Child support system from birth to adulthood
Separately, Hetmantsev emphasized that he is not limited to one-time payments. Within the framework of the proposed policy, a system of long-term child support should be created, which will include several stages and types of assistance:
– “eYasla” — state support for families at the stage of early childhood;
– “Student’s package” — targeted assistance during preparation for school;
– other support programs that will continue until the child reaches adulthood.
The goal of this system is to reduce the financial burden on families at each stage of a child’s development, as well as to create a sense of stability and social security, which many parents lack in modern Ukraine.
In contrast to previous years, when the demographic topic remained peripheral, today the authorities are starting to openly talk about it in a systemic way for the first time. In the conditions of war, the issue of birth rate ceases to be purely social or moral — it moves into the plane of the country’s survival as a community. The steps proposed by Hetmantsev are not yet politics in the full sense, but they indicate that the state apparatus is beginning to realize the scale of the problem. Not only the current situation of families with children, but also the demographic structure of Ukraine in the coming decades will largely depend on whether this initiative will be supported and implemented.
