Child care benefits will begin to be paid to working mothers

A package of bills has been submitted to the State Duma that will give mothers and other relatives or guardians caring for children under the age of one and a half years the right to receive a monthly benefit even if they go back to work full-time. For now, only those who work part-time, work at home, or study can count on this. The innovations will come into force on January 1, 2024.

The author of the initiative was the government, the developer was the Ministry of Labor.

Now the law “On State Benefits for Citizens with Children” stipulates that citizens who are on appropriate leave have the right to child care benefits for children under one and a half years old: the child’s mother, father, grandmother, grandfather or guardian or other person who is actually caring for carries out.

The amount of the benefit for those who worked before parental leave and from whose salaries insurance contributions to the Social Fund were paid is 40% of average earnings, but cannot be higher than the maximum and lower than the minimum. The maximum benefit, if the vacation began in 2023, is 33 thousand 281 rubles. 80 kop. (it’s easy to calculate that a citizen with an average legal income of 83 thousand rubles and more can count on such amounts). The minimum benefit paid to the unemployed is now 8 thousand 591 rubles. 47 kopecks

According to the current rules, a monthly child care benefit for one and a half years is maintained only if the person on leave works “part-time or at home, as well as in the case of continuing education.”

The government proposes another, softer wording: “The right to a monthly child care allowance is retained if a person on parental leave returns to work from parental leave before the child reaches the age of one and a half years (including including on a part-time basis, working from home or remote work) or during the period of granted leave works for another employer, as well as in the case of continuing education.”

This means that even if the mother, for example, returned from vacation three months or a year after giving birth and began working at full capacity, she will continue to be paid benefits in full until the child reaches one and a half years old.

Corresponding changes are also being made to the law “On compulsory social insurance in case of temporary disability and in connection with maternity” and to the Labor Code.

The explanatory note states that all this is being done “for the purpose of material support for working parents caring for children under the age of one and a half years” (it is then bashfully reminded that “in some cases this benefit is the only source of income”). And at the same time, to “stimulate early (before the child reaches the age of one and a half years) return to work from parental leave” (as we know, the economy has recently experienced an acute shortage of workers).

The statistics presented are based on operational data for 2022. They also made it possible to calculate the approximate amount of additional expenses from the federal budget – after all, the innovation should start working from January 1, 2024.

So, last year almost 1.7 million insured persons were on parental leave and received monthly benefits. Of these, more than 142 thousand worked part-time.

The average benefit amount, according to government calculations, in 2024 will be 17 thousand 877 rubles. 21 kopecks per month, which will lead to additional costs of 1.4 billion rubles. But these payments can be ensured through the surplus of the Social Fund for compulsory social insurance in case of temporary disability and in connection with maternity for 2024-2026, the government believes…

The draft federal budget and the Social Fund budget for 2024-26 are now being prepared for the first reading in the State Duma. It follows from them that in 2024 the amount of the maximum child care benefit will increase to 49 thousand 123 rubles. 7 kopecks per month. The minimum benefit until February 1 will still remain equal to the same 8.5 thousand rubles, and then it will be indexed by 7.5% (at this level the Ministry of Economic Development still predicts inflation for 2023).

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has already announced that the package will be considered “as a matter of priority,” and recalled that “Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed that the issue be resolved legislatively.”