Provision of compensation for payment for housing and communal services, purchase of solid household fuel for citizens of Donetsk People’s Republic

Extracts for legal literacy News

We remind you that on July 30 of this year, the Government of the DPR adopted Resolution No. 44-6 “On Approving the Procedure for Providing Compensation for Payment of Housing and Communal Services, Purchasing Solid Household Fuel”, which determines the mechanism for providing compensation to persons registered in the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic for payment for housing and communal services and purchase of solid household fuel (coal).

The following persons have the opportunity to take advantage of this privilege: owners of residential premises, users of residential premises in the state or municipal housing stock, as well as members of a housing cooperative and a housing construction cooperative. Receiving compensation is not associated with and does not entail a change in the form of ownership of housing.

The state has taken a step towards those citizens whose average monthly expenditure on payment for housing and communal services (hereinafter referred to as housing and communal services), within the established consumption standards, excluding benefits, exceeds the size of the mandatory payment, which is 20% of the average monthly total income of all family members registered in the dwelling for the previous 6 months before the month of circulation. Compensation will be calculated based on the number of persons registered in the dwelling who are charged for housing and communal services.

The situation is similar for solid household fuel (SHF). The difference is only in the period of total income of all registered family members and is calculated for the previous 12 months instead of 6, as described above.

However, there are certain requirements in relation to those wishing to issue this type of compensation.

In accordance with the Procedure, upon initial appeal to the Department of Labour and Social Protection of the Population, compensation is established only if the applicant does not have arrears in paying for housing and communal services or if there is a concluded agreement for debt restructuring.

But it is worth noting that the applicant, in the event of arrears in payment for housing and communal services, may be offered to conclude a restructuring agreement in order to pay off the outstanding amount in order to consider further possibility of obtaining compensation.

In turn, compensation for SHF and housing and communal services is assigned to those registered in residential premises with stove heating, in the absence of electric heating, centralized heating and gas supply for heating.

Now let’s figure out how the compensation is calculated directly. When calculating compensation, the following is taken as a basis:

– the average monthly total income of all persons registered in the dwelling and the amount of the mandatory payment.

– the total monthly payment for housing and communal services, excluding benefits, based on consumption rates of 33 sq. m. of total living space for a citizen living alone, 42 sq. m. for a family of two, 52 sq. m. for a family of three or more people.

– the amount of compensation for the purchase of SHF is calculated based on the cost of SHF (RUB 7,500) per year for one dwelling with stove heating.

Thus, compensation for housing and communal services payments is set in the amount of the difference between the actual cost of all provided housing and communal services within the established consumption standards, excluding benefits, and the size of the mandatory percentage of payment.

It is important to note that the category of citizens who have the right to receive benefits for paying for housing and communal services and SHF will be deprived of it, if compensation is established and at the time of its provision.

This type of social support is assigned:

– Housing and communal services – during the non-heating season (from May 01 to September 30) from the month of applying for its appointment; during the heating season (from October 01 to April 30) from the month of applying for its appointment;

– purchase of SHF and housing and communal services – once a calendar year.

At the same time, we would like to inform you that in order to obtain additional information on the issue of filing an application for compensation for payment of housing and communal services and/or the purchase of solid household fuel, as well as to familiarize yourself with the list of documents required for filing, we recommend contacting the Department of Labour and Social Protection of the Population in your district.