For families with children, a universal allowance is introduced: who is entitled to payments

From January 1, Russia will have a universal allowance for needy families with children under the age of 17 and pregnant women – the corresponding bill will be adopted by the State Duma in the first reading next week. The government is confident that this will create a “seamless” and effective system of social support for this category of the population in Russia. But the circle of beneficiaries may change as a result, and in Moscow, which itself fully finances child benefits, the all-Russian rules will not apply.

This is not some new allowance in addition to those that are now – the universal unified allowance will replace several current payments to the poor at once: a monthly allowance for women who are registered with the antenatal clinic in the early stages of pregnancy; allowance for child care for non-working citizens; monthly payment in connection with the birth or adoption of a child until he reaches the age of 3 years; monthly cash payment for a child aged 3 to 7 years; and a monthly cash allowance for a child between the ages of 8 and 17.

Deputy head of the Ministry of Labor Andrei Pudov at a meeting of the Duma Committee on Labor and Social Policy drew attention to the fact that the universal allowance implements the President’s order to create a “harmonious, large-scale and effective” system of support for needy citizens with children. In two years, he recalled, it was possible to more or less build a support system for families with children aged 3 to 17 years (in this case, families with an average per capita income less than the regional subsistence minimum have the right to payments), but as for children aged from births before three years – a motley picture. There is no single approach here. Monthly payments for a second child in the amount of the living wage are provided only from maternity capital, “and if the family has already spent the mother’s capital, then they cannot receive payments.” Benefits for a third child are not available in all regions, somewhere families are supported only at the birth of a third child and if the other two are minors, and somewhere – only at the birth of the fourth and subsequent children, etc., etc.

The right to a universal allowance will arise if the average per capita income of a family does not exceed the subsistence level per capita in a constituent entity of the Russian Federation at the place of residence (place of stay) or the actual residence of family members. The presence of movable and immovable property is also taken into account, and the reasons for the complete absence of income from the family, if any, are clarified.

The average per capita income of a family will be determined based on the sum of the incomes of all family members for the last 12 calendar months before the month in which the application for the allowance is submitted. And the family, according to the text of the bill, includes the person claiming the allowance, his spouse, minor children and full-time single and unmarried student children under the age of 23. The income of those deprived of parental rights, conscripts, cadets of military schools (at the same time, the income of contractors will be counted), sentenced to imprisonment, being on compulsory treatment, in a pre-trial detention center or under house arrest – and, of course, missing or declared by the court will not be taken into account dead.

The amount of the allowance will depend on the size of the family income deficit and will be 50%, 75% or 100% of the regional subsistence minimum for children, or 50%, 75% or 100% of the regional subsistence minimum of the able-bodied population for pregnant women. Now the amount of the monthly allowance for a woman registered in the early stages of pregnancy, in any case, is 50% of the regional subsistence minimum. The regional average living wage for the able-bodied population is 15,000 rubles a month, Mr. Pudov said.

Families with children under the age of three with higher average per capita incomes (up to two subsistence minimums) who are not entitled to universal benefits, according to him, will still be able to count on payments from maternity capital in the amount of up to 1 subsistence minimum, and for all children, regardless of birth order. And the most needy families will be able to immediately receive both a universal allowance from the budget and a payment from the mother’s capital. If there are several children under the age of 17, the universal allowance will be paid for each child.

From the financial and economic justification for the bill, it follows that families with about 9.2 million children will be able to receive it. Together with pregnant women, the benefit coverage will be about 10 million. Payments will be financed mainly from the federal budget, but subject to co-financing from the regional budgets.

The Committee on Family, Women and Children, in its opinion, suggested that the “circle of persons” covered by all the various support measures currently in force, after the introduction of the universal allowance, may change. Now, for example, the property qualification is not applied at all to the monthly payment at the birth (adoption) of the first child, and it is due to everyone whose average per capita income is two PM, and not one. And the allowance for non-working citizens for caring for a child up to one and a half years is paid in general, regardless of family income, in 2022 it amounted to 7,677 rubles …

The head of the Ministry of Labor Anton Kotyakov said in the State Duma that the system for determining the criteria for need is constantly being improved. For example, wanted cars are excluded from the list of property to be taken into account – because formally they are registered with a citizen who, in fact, cannot use them. “There are quite a few such situations,” the minister acknowledged. One of the participants in the discussion of the bill drew attention to the fact that in Moscow the allowance may not be assigned if “mothers received money on the card for selling something on Avito – this was considered income, but in other regions they would not count the same.” To which Mr. Kotyakov replied that “in Moscow, this situation will remain, because Moscow is a direct exception to the bill, it does not participate in co-financing of child benefits from the federal budget, it pays for them itself and has the right to establish its own rules and criteria, but for all other subjects, the rules will be the same.”

The draft law instructs the Pension and Social Insurance Fund to assign and pay benefits.

The allowance is assigned for 12 calendar months. Then the right to it will have to be confirmed by submitting an application again. There is no need to provide certificates – the necessary information will be obtained as part of an interdepartmental exchange of information, Olga Batalina, First Deputy Head of the Ministry of Labor, explained. But there is such a list of conditions and circumstances that are important in determining the level of income that only the person himself can know, and if he provides additional information, then he can retain the right to payment, although he seems to have to lose it, she stipulated. That is why, according to Ms. Batalina, it is important to submit an application every 12 months – so that you can see what has changed in a person’s life.

The application is proposed to be submitted in one of three ways: in electronic form on the Gosuslugi portal (in Moscow – through the Mos.ru portal), through the MFC or “in person”. At the same time, it is noted in the conclusion of the Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes, it follows from the text of the bill that the citizen himself must find out in advance whether this MFC has concluded an agreement on cooperation with the Social Fund, and from which budget the payment will be made in order to understand where specifically to apply, which “is not consistent with the policy of proactive assignment of payments.”

The size of the universal benefit will be automatically recalculated if the subsistence minimum in the region is revised.

In the conclusion of the Duma Committee on Labor and Social Policy, it is recalled that after the adoption of the bill, a government decree on the rules for assigning and paying universal benefits will also be required, and it is assumed that this decree will appear “within three months from the date of official publication” of the finished law. Even if the State Duma rushes and adopts it by the beginning of November, the approval of the Federation Council and the signature of the president will still be required, so there will be less than two months left until January 1.

Apparently, the government will also have to hurry.