The government promises to reform the system of subsidies and incentives before the tariff increasing

The Ministry of Social Policy proposes to conduct comprehensive reform of subsidies and incentives for Ukrainian citizens before making decisions on further increase of utility tariffs.

This was said during the Government Q&A Hour at the Parliament by the Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko.

"Without the reform of the system of subsidies, we can not talk about raising tariffs – he said. – According to our estimates, today more than 3 million households are entitled to subsidies, but so far only one million families have made use of their right."

According to Rozenko, the key reason for this is the lack of confidence of citizens in the existing system of benefits, queues in social services, and a large number of documents to be submitted.

Rozenko presented parliamentarians a proposal for simplifying the system of subsidies when every citizen receives a special notification from social services, in which they then specify their income and budget. "All that can be sent to the social protection service by mail. No intervention, no need to stand in queues" – the minister said, adding that such an approach will considerably simplify citizens’ access to benefits.

As reported, according to the Ministry of Social Policy, the average amount of subsidies for housing and utilities during the heating season of 2014-2015 has increased by 62% over the same period of 2013 – up to 335 UAH.

Source: UNIAN