“Money Follows the Person”: Updates to Assistance Provision for Internally Displaced Elderly Persons and Persons with Disabilities Seeking Residential Care and Supported Living Services

The Charity Foundation “East SOS” continues to highlight important legislative updates impacting the provision of assistance to war-affected people.

Today, we are sharing amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Resolution No. 888 of August 6, 2024. It addresses certain issues regarding the implementation of an experimental project aimed at streamlining the provision of residential care and supported living social services to internally displaced elderly persons and persons with disabilities, using the “money follows the person” principle.

At its core, the project envisions funding social services for this category of citizens from the state budget and the engagement of the Fund for Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities, social service providers, and territorial communities to ensure that elderly IDPs and people with disabilities receive appropriate social support at the local level.

These amendments are particularly important for communities, as they enable the use of state funds to to cover the costs of services already delivered to people. In this way, communities will be able to bypass legal gaps that previously hindered the financing of such services and prevent financial losses due to legislative gaps.

The following updates are outlined in the May 30, 2025 amendments to this resolution:

• Should a social service provider not receive budget funds for services rendered because the service recipient passed away, the Fund for Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities shall transfer these funds from the deceased person’s account directly to the provider.
• Should a service recipient fail to settle accounts with the service provider within 10 days of receiving funds, the funds shall revert to the Fund for Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities the day after the due date expires.
• Furthermore, the response mechanism of the National Social Service in cases of identified violations in the social service provision sector has been clarified. Specifically, the updated provisions regulate the procedure for drawing up inspection reports, notifying relevant parties of identified violations, overseeing the corrective actions, as well as the grounds for de-listing a provider and terminating funding. Authorized agencies are obligated to timely notify service recipients about the cessation of services and ensure their referral to other providers.
• Henceforth, internally displaced elderly persons and persons with disabilities assigned to Mobility Group IV are eligible to receive services (previously, eligibility was limited to those in Mobility Group V)

The updates listed above are expected to positively impact the process by which internally displaced elderly persons and persons with disabilities access residential care and supported living services at the local level, while also increasing its efficiency through newly introduced mechanisms for preventing financial abuse.

However, the CF “East SOS” experts continue to highlight the burden of overly demanding requirements placed on social service providers, namely:

• a cap of 35 residents per facility;
• a requirement that residents be accommodated in single- or double-occupancy rooms;
• proximity limitations requiring service locations to be within 800 meters of public transport stops in urban areas, and in rural areas — the availability of public transport.

Many residential care facilities are unable to meet the outlined requirements under current conditions. This issue was also highlighted in the Foundation’s report following the international monitoring mission to residential care facilities for the elderly and people with disabilities, which was carried out in May across Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Vinnytsia, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv Oblasts. The “East SOS” representatives are actively advocating for these requirements to be eased in order to enable more social service providers to join this project and provide assistance to a larger number of internally displaced elderly people and people with disabilities. This is especially crucial given the ongoing mass evacuation of people with reduced mobility from areas of active hostilities.

The complete version of the report can be accessed on our website.

For more details on the amendments to the resolution:

The advocacy efforts of the Foundation are carried out as part of the project “Support to War-Affected Vulnerable Populations and Residents of Remote Areas of Ukraine,” funded by the EU (European Union in Ukraine). 

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