UKRAINE 2019 UNHCR PARTICIPATRY ASSESSMENT Access to pensions and social benefits Many participants complained about frequent delays and suspensions of pensions and social payments. In the meantime, people rely on their relatives, friends or community members when their pensions and/or social payments are delayed. Those who have vegetable gardens rely on what they grow in their gardens. Pensions and social benefits are inaccessible for persons holding no valid identity documents. People are motivated to restore their identity documents in order to be eligible for pensions and social payments. In Sviatohirsk, there is no office of social protection or pension fund, so people have to travel to Sloviansk. This is costly and difficult for persons with disabilities. Among IDPs registered in Sviatohirsk, 18 per cent have disabilities. Access to free legal aid Participants noted a high demand for free legal aid services. They most frequently requested support with pension reinstatement, social benefits and civil documentation, especially with passport issuance and renewals. Access to civil documentation Many vulnerable people face challenges when they try to exercise their right to access to personal documentation. For example, persons originally from Svitlodarsk must now approach the local authorities in Bakhmut raion to obtain or renew their passports. The State Migration Service in Bakhmut has no access to their paper files, so the applicants are told to bring three witnesses to corroborate their identity. This is a challenge for IDPs. There is low level of legal literacy among the population about the new plastic identity cards, which are gradually replacing the internal passports in paper format. People do not trust the new identity cards, which they fear will give them less access to their rights than “a normal passport”. They are also concerned that their residence registration (which they refer to as “propiska”) is not indicated on the identity card. Parents who hold residence registration in NGCA raised the problem of obtaining residence registration for their children. The children cannot obtain registration in NGCA, and if their parents do not have permanent housing, they cannot receive the registration in GCA either. When asked which assistance they would need to restore their documents, undocumented persons said they would need legal assistance, financial assistance and transportation. After losing civil documentation, people say they feel like social outcasts. As a result, some have resorted to substance abuse. Without documents, they cannot access support from social institutions. Members of the Roma community in Kurakhove stated that they have faced issues with restoration or receipt of Ukrainian passports. A 27-year-old man said he had never obtained a Ukrainian passport, even though both his parents held passports. It had taken him four months to obtain a birth certificate. He said that the SMS asked him to bring a residency certificate from his place of origin, which is in NGCA. This is not possible. Also, some members of the community hold Soviet passports and have never applied for a Ukrainian passport. Access to the SMS remains a pressing problem. Because the SMS’s online system has limited capacity, people are able to get access during night-time hours only. People from Luhansk have to stand in line early in the morning every day to visit the Migration Service. As a result, local people do not have a possibility to visit this center due to enormous queues, which creates tensions. Participants noted the intolerant atmosphere in the SMS office in Kurakhove. It is very challenging to secure an appointment with an SMS employee. In addition, participants said that their written inquiries to the SMS had been unanswered. Undocumented persons rely on humanitarian assistance. However, in 2019, many agencies switched from in-kind to cash-based assistance, which left out people who do not hold identity documentation. Mental health and psychosocial support In areas along the contact line, many people complained about anxiety and sleep disorders. They said they never knew when the shelling would start, and that uncertainty led to high levels of stress. Children are scared at night and ask to sleep with their parents. Even teenaged children often share beds with their parents or grandparents because of fear. “My teenage daughter gets very scared and upset when the shelling starts. One day she got so angry when the shelling started, I was at work she was on her own at home. She cried and asked me to come back home from work which I could not. I felt so bad at that time. When I 16