IDP Housing Allowance: The Extension Cap Rises From Two Six-Month Periods to Six

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a system was created under which the state pays money each month to people who left their homes within the country (internally displaced persons, or IDPs). Its official name is the “Housing Allowance for Internally Displaced Persons” (допомога на проживання внутрішньо переміщеним особам). Its basis is Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 332 of March 20, 2022, which has been amended by 36 resolutions up through No. 1087 of September 3, 2026. This article is based on a reading, in September 2026, of the text of the resolution as it appears in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine’s legal database (the version as of September 23, 2026).

“Internally displaced person” is a different term from “refugee” or “evacuee,” terms used for people who fled across a border. The difference between these terms is covered in Refugee, IDP, Evacuee — Why Not to Use Them Interchangeably.

March 2022: Monthly, for as Long as Martial Law Continues

The original Resolution No. 332 provided for the allowance to be paid monthly “for the period of martial law and for one month after its end or lifting.” The amount, per person, was 3,000 hryvnias a month for people with disabilities and children, and 2,000 hryvnias a month for everyone else. Applications were to be filed through an application created on the “Diia” government services portal (including its app). The resolution also allocated 10 billion hryvnias (the original text reads “10000 млн. гривень”) to the Ministry of Social Policy for this allowance, from the state’s reserve fund.

There was also a provision under which people who, as of March 1, 2022, were receiving the monthly allowance that had been paid to internally displaced persons since 2014 would be assigned this new allowance without applying.

From August 2023: Payment Every Six Months

Resolution No. 709 of July 11, 2023, rewrote in full the “Procedure” (Порядок) that sets out how the allowance is paid. Under the current text, from August 1, 2023, the allowance for a person applying for the first time is assigned in units of a six-month period. From November 1, 2023, a form was also established under which a family applies as a unit and one family member receives the payment on behalf of all. The amounts remain 3,000 hryvnias a month for people with disabilities and children, and 2,000 hryvnias a month for everyone else.

Paragraph 7 of the same Procedure provides that, for a person applying for the first time, the allowance is not paid if any of the following occurred in the three months before applying or while receiving the allowance (only the main ones are listed here).

• Bought a vehicle requiring registration (less than 5 years old; mopeds, trailers, and the like are excluded)
• Purchased land, housing, securities, or the like for more than 100,000 hryvnias, or made a single payment of more than 100,000 hryvnias (medical care, education, and the like are excluded)
• Has more than 100,000 hryvnias in total in deposit accounts
• Bought foreign currency or precious metals totaling more than 100,000 hryvnias
• Owns habitable housing in a location not on the list of combat or occupied areas (excluded if, for example, the floor area is less than 13.65 square meters per person)
• Is renting out housing they own to someone else

A person of working age who is not employed is required, within three months of being assigned the allowance, to take a step such as finding a job, starting as an individual entrepreneur, or registering as unemployed at an employment center (Paragraph 5-1; people caring for children, people with disabilities, and others are excluded).

Conditions for Extension From March 2024

Resolution No. 94 of January 26, 2024, changed the extension mechanism. The same resolution provides that applications for extension from March 1, 2024, onward would be accepted from February 1, and that people who applied in person between February and April would be paid starting March 1.

Under the current text, extension takes one of two main forms.

• People extended automatically without applying (Paragraph 13-1): pension recipients whose pension amount is no more than four times the “subsistence minimum for people unable to work,” people with disability grade 1 or 2, children under 18 with disabilities, children with serious illness, orphans, and others
• Families that apply and receive an extension (Paragraph 13-2): where the average monthly income per family member over the past three months does not exceed four times the same subsistence minimum, and, in addition, the family meets one of the conditions such as being a family with children in which the members able to work are working, or being a family made up only of members unable to work

There is a cap on the number of extensions. Paragraph 13 provides that extensions are limited to the period of a state of emergency or martial law, up to a set number of six-month periods. This cap has been raised each time the resolution has been amended.

Payment Stops While Abroad

Under Paragraph 6 of the Procedure, if a person receiving the allowance stays abroad continuously for more than 30 days, or for a total of more than 60 days within a six-month period, payment stops for the rest of that six-month period. Where it is determined that there is a documented reason, such as a business trip, a child’s medical treatment, training, study, medical treatment, or a family member’s illness or death, these day counts are extended to 60 days and 90 days respectively. A person is obligated to notify the relevant office if they relocate abroad or return to their original home.

When a person who was abroad applies for this allowance for the first time, they are to apply in person only after at least 15 business days have passed since returning to Ukraine (Paragraph 8).

Applications Go to the Pension Fund

Resolution No. 765 of June 25, 2025, replaced the term “social protection body” in the Procedure with “a body of the Pension Fund of Ukraine.” Under the current text, the application is submitted to a body of the Pension Fund, a municipal official, or an official of an Administrative Services Center (TsNAP), at the place where the person is registered as an internally displaced person. A person with a taxpayer number may also apply electronically through Diia, where technically possible. Diia is covered in Diia’s Electronic Passport: Not Usable at the Border and With No Legal Effect Abroad.

The system has changed from the 2022 form of “the same amount for everyone, monthly, for as long as martial law continues” to a form in which conditions are checked and payment is made every six months. While the amount has not changed since 2022, the cap on the number of extensions has been raised from two in August 2024 to six in September 2026. Whether a person can receive this allowance depends on where they lived, their family composition, and their income and assets. Individual cases need to be checked with the Pension Fund.