Ombudsman: Irregularities in the child allowance process, Serbian children discriminated against

The Ombudsperson Institution conducted investigations ex officio after receiving numerous complaints, primarily from the Serbian community, regarding the suspension of child allowance payments. According to the statement, the document verification process was contrary to the principles of administrative procedure, leading to a violation of the rule of law and placing children from the Serbian community in an unequal position.

The complainants stated that they had been receiving child allowance from September 2021 to December 2024. Meanwhile, between August and December 2024, the Social Schemes Department within the Ministry of Finance, Labor, and Transfers requested recipients to verify their documentation for child allowance.

The complainants complied with the Social Schemes Department instructions by submitting their documentation through social work centers and later via mail. Despite these actions, child allowance payments were still suspended, and the recipients received no notifications or explanations regarding the issue, the Ombudsperson Institution reported.

They added that some users from the Serbian community were asked to appear at the Kosovo Agency of Statistics to verify their residency status. This was because the evidence they submitted, such as school certificates for their children and vaccination records, was not recognized by the state system.

During the investigation, the Ombudsman requested Social Schemes Department officials to provide copies of all decisions and instructions underlying the department’s actions, but as of the time of the report, the Ombudsman had not received these documents.

“Such documents, including the decision from October 31, 2024, which outlines the document verification process but does not specify the additional documents requested from citizens via email, have not been published,” the Ombudsman emphasized.

The Ombudsman concluded that the actions of the Ministry may not have been intended to violate citizens’ rights, but the entire verification process was fundamentally inconsistent with the principles of administrative procedure.

“And this had a cascading effect in violating the rule of law, especially affecting children from the Serbian community by placing them in an unequal and disadvantaged position, which in fact constitutes discrimination based on ethnic origin,” the statement reads.

In a letter, the Ombudsman recommended that the Ministry of Finance, Labor, and Transfers immediately publish all decisions, instructions, and requirements related to the document verification process for citizens receiving child allowance, in a clear and transparent manner, and in both official languages.