The government adjusted the mechanism for child benefit payments
The Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution introducing extensive changes to the procedure for appointing and paying state assistance to families with children. The updates concern payment mechanisms, the use of special accounts, digital services, and control over the expenditure of funds.
Resolution No. 617 dated May 15, 2026, provides for the further expansion of the use of special accounts with an expenditure control regime, including through the electronic payment tool “Diia.Card.” Key types of state assistance will be credited to such accounts, including payments for child care up to one year old, the “eYasla” program, compensation for the “baby package,” and the “school package” assistance.
The use of funds will remain targeted.
Payments will be made within shortened terms — up to 14 working days after the decision is made.
Previously opened special accounts remain valid — there is no need to reopen them. If a person has several such accounts, the payment will be credited to the one opened most recently.
The government also updated the list of categories of sellers where purchases can be paid for using the assistance funds.
The government specified that the amount of cash compensation for the one-time in-kind assistance “baby package” is three times the subsistence minimum for children under six years of age established by law.
Additionally, the resolution clarifies that now, in case of a child’s birth outside a healthcare facility, the recipient has the right to apply for the “baby package” at the local structural unit for social protection of the population at the declared/registered place of residence (stay)/place of residence of an internally displaced person within three months from the date of the child’s birth. Previously, it was “within a year from the date of the child’s birth.”
The right to receive cash compensation is granted to citizens of Ukraine, as well as foreigners and stateless persons, persons recognized in Ukraine as refugees or persons in need of additional protection, who legally reside in Ukraine together with the child and are its parents or guardians (if guardianship over the child is established).
In cases where parents leave the child in a maternity hospital or another healthcare facility or are deprived of parental rights regarding a child under one year old, the amount of cash compensation received by the recipient is subject to return in the amount of the actual unused balance on the account at the time the court decision on deprivation of parental rights comes into force.
Such a person is obliged to voluntarily return the amount of cash compensation to the Pension Fund of Ukraine. In case voluntary return is impossible, the amount of cash compensation is recovered through court proceedings in accordance with the law.
Cash compensation is assigned to guardians until the child reaches one year of age, provided that the cash compensation was not received by one of the child’s parents or was fully returned according to the fourth paragraph of this section.
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