Single moms that took children for vacations in Crimea are denied social aid

It is mostly single mothers who apply for the targeted social aid. The European Radio for Belarus has learned that not all the applicants managed to get assistance from the state. According to Natallya Rasolka, the head of social security department at the Minsk City Hall, only 1064 out of 1317 applications were approved.

There are various reasons to reject applications for the state assistance. Income per one family member should not exceed 100 percent of the minimum living age (Br200,000). A family should not let out a garage, an apartment or a plot of land. If a family has new household devices or even an old car, the social security commission could start asking where the money came from to buy all that. In this case, an application for social assistance would be rejected.

In Minsk’s Pershamayski district, there were several cases when applications for social assistance were rejected. In one case, the mother took her child for 2.5 weeks of vacations in southern Ukraine.

“Young mothers take their kids for 2-3 weeks of vacations in Ukraine. They have border control stamps in their passports. How can mothers collect enough money using the social assistance and take their child out for vacations? She gets 50 percent of assistance. The child goes to a kindergarten. Afterwards, they go for vacations. On what money?” asks a staff at the Pershamayski district’s social security department.

In cases when a child is sick and needs treatment or rehabilitation in Ukraine, it will be impossible to prove anything to the social assistance commission. The law stipulates that foreign tourism justifies the rejection of applications for social assistance.