What is IDP status, how and who can get it

By data The Ministry of Social Policy, as of mid-August 2023, registered almost 5 million people who left their homes because of the war in Ukraine. Some of them had to move again.

In order to receive assistance from the state, displaced persons need to obtain the status of an internally displaced person.

What does the status entail, what assistance can IDPs receive, and what to do if they moved to another place or returned home, we will tell below.

Who can get IDP status?

An internally displaced person is a Ukrainian or foreigner who legally lives on the territory of Ukraine and was forced to to move from their permanent place of residence due to war, occupation, acts of violence, violations of human rights or emergency situations, says the law on IDPs.

The status of an internally displaced person(IDP) can be obtained by a person who has changed his place of residence only within the borders of Ukraine.

Namely, if you moved from:

• temporarily occupied territories;
• territory surrounded (blocking);
• territories where active hostilities are taking place.

As of now, there are 329 communities Donetsk, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.

In particular, the status of IDPs can be obtained by Ukrainians who have moved within the same region from a settlement where hostilities are taking place to one where it is safe.

The list of territories is not fixed, so the updated list of communities should be checked on site Ministry of Integration.

How to get a certificate of IDP status

To confirm the status of an IDP, you need to submit an appropriate application and get a certificate from the Social Security Administration or social security authorities at the new place of residence. You can also contact the city or village council or issue an IDP certificate in “Diya”.

From the age of 14, you can submit an application yourself, and a certificate for a child under 14 can be issued by a relative or guardian. If a person has limited legal capacity, a legal representative can do it instead.

Documents which are needed for obtaining a IDP certificate:

• passport (or other identity document, documents from the “Act” are also suitable);
• a document to confirm the place of residence, if the residence is not indicated in the passport (military ID, employment book, medical documents);
• individual tax number (RNOKPP);
• birth certificate (for a child).

In order to receive a document from TsNAP, you will need to fill out an application, indicating your personal data, last place of residence and the number of the “ePydtymky” bank account.

If use “Action”you need to select a service in the application “Services for IDPs” and click on the desired service. To issue a certificate, the application must already have a taxpayer card and an ID card or a foreign biometric passport. To receive it, you will need to confirm your current location.

In the application, you can issue an IDP certificate for the whole family at once. Cash assistance will then be paid to one bank card. The condition is if the family members did not previously have an IDP certificate.

What assistance can IDPs count on?

Document needed In order to receive social servicesfor example:

• monetary payments from the state;
• help with finding housing;
• social insurance in case of unemployment;
• access to medical care.

In addition, he will help IDPs to reissue their pension and place their child in kindergarten or school at their new place of residence.

Who receives payments from the state?

State financial assistance can get:

• Ukrainians who have the status of IDPs due to the fact that they left the occupation and war zones;
• citizens whose housing is destroyed or uninhabitable due to shelling or hostilities.

From January 29, 2024, the government will be financial to support Ukrainians who have returned from abroad. Conditions – if they lived outside of Ukraine for no more than 90 days after the start of the full-scale invasion and filed a corresponding application within 15 days after returning to Ukraine.

Payments will be provided for 6 months – for the time when the family members have not yet had time to get a job. However, after two months of assistance, the resettled must find a job or register with the Employment Center.

As of March 1, 2024, some internally displaced persons who received benefits for one or two years lost them. However, IDP payments continued for another 6 months for the most vulnerable categories:

• low-income pensioners;
• persons with disabilities and those who care for them;
• orphans;
• adoptive parents

Payments for this period will also save some groups of IDPs, if a separate application is submitted:

• minor children who arrived in a new community without a legal representative;
• pregnant women after the 30th week of pregnancy;
• people who have lost their working capacity, but do not have the right to receive a pension.

In addition, the state will continue to pay funds if the average monthly income of one family member is not higher than 9,444 hryvnias.

From March 22, the list of IDPs who will be able to receive financial support, expanded. An application for the extension of assistance can be submitted until April 30, 2024.

To clarify the details of assistance, you can contact hotline for IDPs.

Is it possible to cancel the IDP status?

If you submit an application for refusal of the IDP certificate, it will be canceled. Also, the reference will lose its effect, if a person moved to live abroad or returned to the place from where she was forced to leave.

You can cancel the IDP status offline in TsNAP or online in action”. For this it is necessary choose the corresponding option in the help menu or go to the section “Services for IDPs”. In addition, there is an opportunity in the section change the place of registration of the IDPif you had to move from the address where you lived before that.