The Homes for Ukraine scheme provides you with the right to access a range of benefits and services whilst you are in the UK. As a first step, the government will provide to you and each member of your family that you have travelled with a £200 grant to help cover any immediate costs you have while you settle in. This will be provided through your local council. This is not counted as part of any other benefit scheme which you may be able to claim and will not need to be re-paid.

You can choose the bank that suits you best from a range of banks in the UK. These include (but are not limited to):

• Barclays UK
• Bank of Ireland UK
• Bank of Scotland
• The Co-operative Bank
• Danske Bank UK
• First Direct
• Halifax
• HSBC UK
• Lloyds Banking Group
• Monzo (digital only bank)
• Nationwide Building Society
• NatWest Group
• RBS
• Santander UK
• Ulster Bank
• Virgin Money

To open the account you might need to visit the bank person, so you might want to find a bank that has a branch close to where you are living. To open a bank account in the UK, you usually need to show the proof of ID such as passport, biometric residency permit, as well as proof of permanent address, though the latter is not required by law to open a bank account.

If you don’t have all the identification documents, take all the information you have with you to the bank. Bank is encouraged to consider alternative ways to identify and verify their customers, and the government has been working closely with the sector to support access for incoming Ukrainian nationals who may not have standard documentation for identity verification.

It is recommended that you deposit your hryvnia cash into your bank accounts in Ukraine rather than taking cash out of the country as you leave. When in the UK, you will be able to make cashless payments, or withdraw cash in GBP, using payment cards issued by Ukrainian banks.

If you’re employed, the tax you pay will usually be taken out of your salary automatically. If you’re self-employed you may need to register for Self Assessment and send a tax return each year.

Most people in the UK get a Personal Allowance of tax-free income. The standard Personal Allowance is £12,570, which is the amount of income you do not have to pay tax on. For higher bands of income the income tax is levied at progressive rates up to 45%.

You will need to get the National Insurance Number in order to pay mandatory National Insurance contributions. If you are applying for benefit and do not have a National Insurance number, the benefit team will initiate the process so that you are issued with a National Insurance Number. Once your entitlement to benefit has been assessed you will receive a text message to your phone which contains a link (URL) to enable you to apply for a National Insurance Number on gov.uk. You must access the link and complete the application as soon as possible to avoid any delays.

You might get taxed in the UK and Ukraine for income that only needs to be taxed once. If this happens, you’ll usually be able to claim ‘double-taxation relief’. Check this guidance on paying UK tax on your income from Ukraine .

There is an ingenious, but not perfect, solution — to prove to the tax authority of the state in which the citizen does not plan to pay taxes that he is a resident of another country where he fulfills this duty.

A natural person has such a right, as Ukraine has valid conventions and treaties on the avoidance of double taxation with 73 countries of the world. Among them are almost all European countries, as well as the USA and Canada. According to these conventions, Ukrainians who pay taxes in Ukraine have the right to avoid taxation in the country of residence.

If such a situation arises in which a citizen falls under the criteria of a tax resident of Ukraine and at the same time another state defines him as its resident, he has the right to contact the tax authorities of the country of residence and make a request to the Ukrainian tax authorities to confirm that he pays taxes.

That is, in order to prevent double taxation, it is necessary to determine the resident status of an individual and, if necessary, obtain a document that will confirm it. But this may require the help of specialists - tax consultants or lawyers. Specialists advise in advance to collect evidence of the presence of a center of economic interests in Ukraine (if you plan to pay taxes only in Ukraine).

Among them may be:

• certificate of payment of taxes in Ukraine;
• certificate of tax resident of Ukraine (soon to be available in electronic form);
• actual place of registration in Ukraine;
• evidence of the presence of an individual entrepreneur registered in Ukraine (registration documents and tax declarations);
• certificates of current accounts in Ukrainian banks;
• certificates about the child's attendance at educational institutions in Ukraine;
• receipts for the payment of utility bills.

If a citizen of Ukraine is recognized as a resident of Ukraine, but paid taxes in another country, the taxes paid can be credited in Ukraine. But if a person does not meet the criteria of a resident of Ukraine, it allows to change the tax resident status and consider another country as the place of tax payment.

It is important to check the registration of a natural person as a subject of entrepreneurial activity in the Unified State Register. Even if the activity has not been carried out for a long time, but the registration has not been terminated, this is a criterion for recognizing a person as a resident of Ukraine, which is accompanied by the obligation to pay taxes on income received abroad in Ukraine.

Being a citizen of Ukraine, but a tax NON-resident, you will still have to pay taxes in Ukraine for some types of income:

• when receiving inheritance and gifts from persons who are not relatives of the 1st and 2nd degrees of kinship;
• when receiving an investment profit;
• when selling/leasing immovable and movable property to a natural person.

Source .

You can transfer money from UK to Ukraine via an international transfer or money transfer at a corresponding provider or a bank.

For an international transfer at the bank you have to fill out a special form and usually pay fees. Other special money transfer providers (e.g. Western Union, Moneygram, Wise, Revolut, Paypal) are often a cheaper and faster alternative.