Nataliya Rumyanetseva, right, is hosting her mother, Valetyna Klymova. She said it would be \u2018cruel\u2019 if hosting changed to become a more commercial rental arrangement. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The GuardianView image in fullscreenNataliya Rumyanetseva, right, is hosting her mother, Valetyna Klymova. She said it would be \u2018cruel\u2019 if hosting changed to become a more commercial rental arrangement.<\/p>\n
Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The GuardianUkrainians in UK fear cut to funds for Homes for Ukraine hosts could make them homelessScheme set up after Russian invasion in 2022 paid \u00a3350 a month to people hosting Ukrainians but this will reduce to \u00a3100 next yearUkrainian refugees fear they could be left homeless after the government quietly axed 70% of funding for hosts of the Homes for Ukraine scheme, reducing monthly \u201cthank you\u201d payments to them from \u00a3350 to \u00a3100.The scheme was launched after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has provided support for 181,000 of the 234,000 Ukrainians who have since sought sanctuary in the UK.Now the government has said it will cut the hosting payments and reduce contributions to local authorities which are paid a sum for each arrival to meet costs associated with the delivery of the programme.A written statement to parliament from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 15 September said funding would be reduced from \u00a35,900 to \u00a33,300. The changes will come into effect from 1 January 2027.Tetiana, a 73-year-old Ukrainian refugee who has been hosted for two years and four months, said she was devastated to read the government\u2019s letter circulated to hosts in the last few days informing them of the changes.\u201cI feel that this financial change could impact on my host\u2019s ability to host me. If the hosting comes to an end I don\u2019t know where I will go and how I can start again. I can\u2019t work because of my age and because I have mobility problems.<\/p>\n
I fled from Kharkiv which is close to the Russia frontline so I can\u2019t go back to Ukraine. I don\u2019t know what I will do. I\u2019m at a loss about what my options will be. This change has created a lot of uncertainty for me.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know how I would be able to pay rent if hosting finishes for me.\u201dNataliya Rumyanetseva is hosting her mother, the first Ukrainian to arrive in the UK after the war started. She said the changes were likely to have a significant impact. \u201cWhen refugees arrive here from Ukraine they are shell shocked and need time to adapt and learn the language. If hosting changes to become a more commercial rental arrangement I think that\u2019s cruel.\u201dOne host who lives in Greenwich said he did not know if he would be able to continue hosting because of the drop in payments. \u201cI\u2019ve been a sponsor since May 2022. I was dismayed to learn that thank you payments are reducing to just \u00a3100.<\/p>\n
I lost my job within months of becoming a sponsor and these payments have become an absolute lifeline even though I did not volunteer for this scheme for the money. I genuinely worry about the consequences of this change for Ukrainians in the UK.\u201dOne option the government proposes is that hosts can switch to landlord status and charge refugees rent.A host who lives in Cardiff and is hosting a Ukrainian who has enrolled on a course of study said: \u201cThe situation feels like a cheap shot from the government. We, in good faith, opened our home to someone in need. That person, in good faith, planned for a life in the UK.<\/p>\n
And the government in what seems like very bad faith, saw an easy way to claw money back from people who aren\u2019t in a position to stop them.\u201dThe government says it has so far provided more than \u00a31.81bn for the scheme.The Home Office has been approached for comment.Explore more on these topicsUkraineEuropeImmigration and asylumRefugeesnewsShareReuse this content<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nataliya Rumyanetseva, right, is hosting her mother, Valetyna Klymova. She said it would be \u2018cruel\u2019 if hosting changed to become a more commercial rental arrangement. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The GuardianView image in fullscreenNataliya Rumyanetseva, right, is\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.tcjhomeaccents.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}