Matkapital, child benefits, monthly payments: what will change in Russia from February 1

Increase in maternity capital and child benefits

From February 1, the amount of maternity capital will be indexed. Families will receive 587,000 rubles for the first child, and 775,000 rubles for the second child. If the family has already received maternity capital for the first child, then the additional payment for the second will be about 190 thousand rubles.

In February, the minimum monthly allowance for child care will also be increased to 1.5 years. Now parents will be able to receive up to 8,630 rubles. This amount may be increased depending on the district coefficient.

Payments for women who are on maternity leave will also increase. On sick leave for a period of 140 days, they will be paid up to 383 thousand rubles, if calculated at the maximum rate. In the case of complicated births and multiple pregnancies, the allowance for 156 days will be from 83 to 427 thousand rubles, and for 194 – from 103.5 to 531 thousand rubles.

One-off payments for newborns will also increase. Now newly-made parents from February 1 will receive about 23 thousand rubles. The amount of the payment is calculated depending on the age of the child. The allowance is paid within 10 working days after the birth certificate is issued. You can count on cash assistance until the child is six months old.

Andrey Loboda, economist, director of communications and CSR at BitRiver, comments: “Russia continues its course towards improving the demographic situation. The amount of maternity capital has been regularly indexed in recent years, and this is definitely the right decision. Supporting young families is a win-win story.

Over the past 10 years, the amount of maternity capital has increased by 44%, which indicates the thoughtful and effective work of the authorities in this direction.

The fact that the population of Russia does not lose millions of people every year, as it was 20-25 years ago, can already be considered an important victory.

Maternal capital, as an undoubtedly important instrument for investing in the future of the country, could be more effectively used in terms of solving the housing issue. It’s no secret that young families have been paying off their mortgages for decades by buying small apartments in cities. Given the construction of private housing (IZHS) in rural areas, the size of the mother’s capital could be doubled or even tripled. Many children are born in families living in private homes, and not in expensive cells at fabulous prices in large cities.

Changing the amount of payments for beneficiaries

From February 1, the indexation of important social benefits, including the monthly cash payment (EDV), will take place. The indexation coefficient is 11.9%. Today, more than 14.1 million citizens receive EFA in Russia. The payment can be received by disabled veterans and participants in the Great Patriotic War, parents and widows of fallen soldiers; citizens who have special merits before the state; people with disabilities, including disabled children, as well as combat veterans. It is planned to index over 40 different social support measures. The total cost of indexing social benefits from February 2023 will amount to 152.4 billion rubles.

Alexey Zubets, professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, comments: “Indexation was made in the amount of general inflation for 2022. At the same time, one must understand that the food price index in Russia, as a rule, is higher. However, various kinds of consumer goods rose in price last spring even more than food, as the dollar strengthened sharply.

But the main problem is that indexation was almost a year late: prices rose in March-April 2022, and far from 11.9%, and people will receive compensation only now. This means that they experienced a lack of income all last year. In a good way, indexation should be carried out promptly: if nominally inflation rose by 5% in a month, then it is necessary to immediately increase social benefits by the same amount. A year lag is very ugly, in fact, we are talking about the quiet withdrawal of money by the state from a significant part of the population. And it’s best to introduce advanced indexation (based on the official forecast) and carry it out at least in two stages – at the beginning and middle of the year.”

Entrance to “Gosuslugi” by biometrics

From February, Russian citizens should be able to access the Gosuslug portal using biometrics. At the same time, logins and passwords will also be valid, just such an innovation will become another way to identify citizens.

To use this technology, you need to register in the Unified Biometric System at the branches of a number of banks. Now banks carry out such registration by taking a photo of a citizen and recording his voice. In the future, this service will be available in multifunctional centers (MFCs) and special mobile applications. You must also provide consent to use this service.

Alexander Balakirev, a specialist at the law firm Intercessia, comments: “Despite the fact that in Russia citizens are distrustful of the biometric identification system, this method of identity verification is actively gaining momentum, in particular in the banking sector. An increasing number of banks are implementing authorization based on biometric data in their work.

By the way, this type of identification is very developed in other countries and is considered one of the most reliable. The reliability of authorization by biometrics is confirmed, in particular, by the fact that biometric data (photo and voice) are stored not in the form in which we are used to seeing and feeling them, but in the form of a mathematical model, therefore, if they fall into the hands of criminals, this information will not do anything to them. will give.

In this regard, the introduction of the possibility of authorization on the “State Services” using biometrics should be perceived by citizens rather positively than negatively. It should also be noted that this will only be an additional type of verification. The main identification features (login by phone number, login and password) will still be valid.”

New tax notice application form

From February 1, the order of the Federal Tax Service of Russia on the approval of the application form comes into force, on the basis of which citizens can receive a tax notice on paper, regardless of whether they have access to the taxpayer’s personal account on the website of the Federal Tax Service or not. Now, as a general rule, the Federal Tax Service does not send paper notifications of tax payments to citizens if they are registered in the Taxpayer’s Personal Account. But on the basis of this application, a notification should be issued at the MFC or at the FTS department.

Irina Egorova, head of the corporate and tax practice at Intercession, comments: “The application form, valid until February 1, 2023, provided for the issuance of tax notices only to those individuals who did not have access to the taxpayer’s personal account, or to those who received such access, but sent to the tax authority a notice of receipt of documents on paper. The new application form cancels these restrictions, allowing you to receive a notification from the tax office in the form of a paper document, regardless of whether the individual has a personal account and whether he previously submitted a notification of receipt of documents on paper. As before, such a notification can be obtained at any tax authority or at the MFC. In addition, taxpayers are no longer required to fill out their personal data in the application (full name, passport data, date of birth, place of birth), it is enough to indicate your TIN (if any).”

Penalties for poor communication

From February 1, amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation come into force, which provide for the imposition of a fine on telecom operators if they do not ensure the stability of the functioning of the Russian segment of the Internet and other means of communication in case of denial of access to foreign servers and routing information. From now on, failure to comply with the requirements to ensure stable and integral operation of the Internet in Russia will be an administrative offense.

Unscrupulous operators, as well as owners of technological networks, will be punished with a ruble. For citizens, the fine will be from 3 to 5 thousand rubles, for individual entrepreneurs – from 10 to 20 thousand, for legal entities – from 30 to 50 thousand rubles.

Grigory Skripilev, Head of Dispute Resolution and Litigation at Intercession, commented: “The establishment of penalties for poor quality services should theoretically encourage telecom operators to more conscientiously fulfill their obligations, but often problems with unstable connections are caused solely by technical problems, outdated equipment and lack of opportunity to purchase newer and better equipment.

Therefore, the assertion that the introduction of penalties will have a positive impact on the quality of communication seems disputable. Unscrupulous operators face administrative liability in the form of a fine. However, it is not clear by what criteria the lack of communication or an unstable connection will be recorded. At the moment, it seems unclear how, in fact, the guilt of telecom operators will be proved.

Housing for military personnel will be handed over to regional authorities

On February 4, a law comes into force that allows regional authorities to provide privileged categories of citizens with those living quarters that were intended for retired military personnel, but for some reason were not in demand by them (for example, due to relocation, refusal and other circumstances). Now this housing can be withdrawn from the reserve and provided to other beneficiaries who are in line for improving their living conditions, from among the disabled, combat veterans, Chernobyl victims and other categories.

Ivan Samoylenko, Managing Partner at B&C Agency, commented: “In Russia, about 4 million citizens are waiting for their turn to improve their living conditions, while the average waiting time is 20 years. Which, according to the government, of course, is a very long time. Just to optimize the process of issuing housing to beneficiaries, the federal government transfers this issue to the jurisdiction of the regions. Since it is clearer on the spot what options are possible, to provide housing to people as quickly as possible, avoiding unnecessary additional paperwork in coordinating these steps with the federal center. I would like to hope that this approach will speed up the process of issuing housing to various categories of beneficiaries in our country.”

As well as:

Rising truck fares. From February 1, the fare for trucks weighing more than 12 tons will increase for travel on federal roads (Platon system). Now drivers will have to pay 2.84 rubles per kilometer (the current fee is 2.54 rubles). The tariff is indexed annually based on the inflation rate for the previous year. 763,000 carriers and more than 1.7 million trucks are registered in the Platon state system.

Parallel import. Starting February 2, 2023, the list of goods allowed for parallel import will be supplemented by brands of automotive spare parts, chemical industry products, sports equipment, and toys.

Introduced state control in the field of environmental protection. From February 3, inspectors will carry out constant raids and will be able to use physical force and weapons to detain poachers.

An experiment to combat delays will begin. On February 1, an experiment will begin to introduce a system that excludes the technical possibility of selling expired products, as well as tobacco and nicotine-containing products illegally put into circulation. It will last until August 1st.

The list of goods that will take part in the experiment includes bottled drinking and mineral water, dairy products (with the exception of ice cream without dairy fat), beer, including non-alcoholic, cider, cigarettes, cigars, tobacco (smoking, chewing and snuff, as well as for hookah), smoking mixtures for hookah without tobacco, electronic tobacco heating systems.