The “Servants of the People” decided to radically change the legislation on social protection of Chernobyl victims. We are talking about the restoration in full of state guarantees and benefits for victims of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which they were deprived of 6 years ago.
Such an initiative is contained in bill No. 5444, registered in the Verkhovna Rada on April 29. Its author was the people’s deputy from the ruling party Sergei Kuzminykh.
According to the explanatory note to the document, state guarantees for citizens affected by the Chernobyl disaster, actually ceased in 2015 with the entry into force of the lawwho have canceled benefits and compensations for various categories of the population… However, in 2018 the Constitutional Court admitted some of the provisions of this law are unconstitutional, and therefore, in the opinion of the author of the bill No. 5444, there is every reason for its adoption.
In particular, the document introduces amendments to the Law “On the status and social protection of citizens affected by the Chernobyl disaster“, which is proposed:
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Chernobyl victims of 2 and 3 categories as a matter of priority provide annually with sanatorium vouchers or vacation vouchers by providing annual monetary assistance to compensate for the cost of vouchers or receiving monetary compensation at their request;
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provide full state support for children before their entry into school (not older than 8 years) through free upbringing (maintenance) in state and communal kindergartens. For such children it is also proposed monetary assistance is allocated monthly, the amount of which will be determined by the Cabinet;
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children affected by the Chernobyl disaster, as well as their accompanying persons, provide free travel in any type of transport (except taxi) in order to get to the place of treatment (rehabilitation, recovery);
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families with children aged 7 to 16 (students under the age of 18), and who live in areas of radioactive contamination, pay double the amount of state aid;
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citizens who live in areas of radioactive contamination, pay monthly cash aid in connection with the limitation of consumption of locally produced food and personal subsidiary plots in the amount of 30% to 50% of the minimum wage (depending on the category of the contaminated area);
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citizens who work in areas of radioactive contamination, pay a supplement to earnings in the amount of 1 to 3 times the minimum wage (depending on the category of the contaminated area);
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pensioners working in areas of radioactive contamination, increase wages additionally by 25% of the minimum wage;
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to provide a minimum limit for the amount of pensions for all groups of persons with disabilities (including children), in relation to which a link has been established with the Chernobyl disaster.
Moreover, the bill also contains rather strange norms, given the fact that 35 years have passed since the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. So, the document guarantees a monthly payment of 50% of the minimum wage, regardless of other payments for every school-age child who:
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evacuated from the exclusion zone;
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was born after 26 April 1986 to a father who, at the time of the onset of the mother’s pregnancy, had reason to belong to category 1 or 2;
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was born after 26 April 1986 to a mother who, at the time of the onset of pregnancy or during pregnancy, had reason to belong to category 1 or 2;
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lived in the zone of compulsory resettlement from the moment of the accident until the adoption of the decree on resettlement (in 1991).
Also incomprehensible is the norm proposed by the draft document, according to which it is proposed to pay monthly monetary assistance in the amount of the minimum salary to those families where are school childrenwho have received a disability or are registered in the dispensary as a result of the Chernobyl disaster. The author of the document does not explain where the money in the budget for all the social benefits proposed by the document will come from..
As reported OBOZREVATEL, the Verkhovna Rada supported in the first reading the bill on increasing pensions for Chernobyl victimswho received a disability of 1-3 groups, as well as liquidators.
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