Social services demand that a woman return 18,000 hryvnias received as IDP while living in Odesa, as ruled by the court.

The woman was receiving housing assistance for internally displaced persons. However, it turned out that she had been living in Odesa the entire time. Social protection authorities demand the return of the excess allocated assistance amounts totaling 18 thousand hryvnias. This is stated in the verdict of the Kyiv District Court of Odesa, published on October 21, 2024.

The woman has been registered with the social protection department in the Kyiv District of the Odesa City Council since July 2020 as a recipient of childbirth assistance. According to the Unified Information Database of IDPs, she registered as an internally displaced person on June 12, 2022, submitted an application for housing assistance through the Diia Portal (i.e., without personally contacting the social protection authorities), and her registration took place in the social protection department of the Kyiv District of Odesa, where she remained registered until December 1, 2022. The housing assistance was automatically granted at the central level starting June 1, 2022, in the amount of 2 thousand hryvnias.

On June 13, 2022, the woman approached the social protection department in the Kyiv District with written requests for registration and the provision of housing assistance for internally displaced persons for her son. The department decided to deny her assistance and the issuance of a certificate of registration as an internally displaced person because, at the time of the declaration of martial law (February 24, 2022), she was living in Odesa with her son.

Case Review

The court found that during the registration through the Diia portal, the woman knowingly provided false information regarding the date of her displacement from the city of Beryslav in the Kherson region. The certificate of registration dated June 12, 2022, was automatically generated at the central level based on the false information she provided about the date of displacement. As of June 12, 2022, she was already living, working, and receiving childbirth assistance in Odesa. This is also confirmed by an order from the Odesa Research Expert and Criminalistic Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, which states that the citizen was employed from December 6, 2021, according to her application dated November 8, 2021 (a copy is attached).

According to the individual data about the insured person from the Pension Fund of Ukraine, the woman has been working and receiving a salary since December 2021. Furthermore, according to a letter from the municipal non-profit enterprise "Children's City Polyclinic No. 6," her child is registered with KNP "DMP No. 6." In January 2022 (i.e., before the declaration of martial law), the child visited a pediatrician accompanied by the mother. These documents confirm that the citizen provided false information and lived in Odesa before the declaration of martial law.

What was the court's decision?

The court granted the lawsuit. The woman is to repay the amount of excessively disbursed housing assistance for internally displaced persons, totaling 18 thousand hryvnias, to the Department of Labor and Social Policy of the Odesa City Council.

"The fact of the respondent's bad faith in obtaining the funds for housing assistance for internally displaced persons has been established, and therefore, the monetary assistance that was allocated to the respondent in the amount of 18 thousand hryvnias must be returned by her, as it was received without proper legal grounds. Thus, taking into account the circumstances established in the case, the court concluded that the claims of the lawsuit should be satisfied in full," the court emphasized.