The Richest in Ukraine get most social concessions

At a press conference to mark Independence Day, Ludmila Cherenko, Head of the Department researching standard of living in the Institute of Demography and Social Research of the Academy of Sciences, stated that it is the affluent in Ukraine who get the most social benefits.

“The 10% of the poorest Ukrainians get 2% of the system of benefits, while the 10% who are most well-up get 22%. They have split up the population into 10 groups on the basis of income, and increase in income is matched by a corresponding increase in how many social benefits representatives of that layer receive.

Taxpayers’ money is thus going more on helping the wealthy. She also pointed out that the social benefits are not targeted at those needing them, with the wealthy being able to apply for mortgages for the poor.

Virtually every second household has one person receiving some kind of benefit.  If you add social assistance for children, on housing and so forth, but don’t count pensions, then more than half the population are part of State social programmes.