New areas for spending maternal capital have been named: domestic cars, expensive medicines…

The State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs spoke about new ways to spend maternity capital. “The use of maternity capital funds is a very fertile topic. And a lot of ideas always appear on this topic,” said deputy Svetlana Bessarab. She gave two examples of this kind of proposals that were considered by parliamentarians: the use of maternity capital for the purchase of a domestically produced car such as a minivan for large families, as well as for expensive treatment of mother and child. So far, no relevant decisions have been made, but MK discussed with experts how much it is possible and advisable in principle to expand the areas for spending maternal capital.

Over the past decade and a half, maternity capital has been considered one of the most effective measures of state support for Russian families, aimed at increasing the birth rate and improving the demographic situation in the country. Since 2007, families in which a second child was born or adopted, as well as any subsequent child, were entitled to such support, if the right to capital had not arisen or been formalized before. And from January 1, 2020, maternity capital is issued at the birth of the first child.

The state regularly indexes the size of maternal capital. The last time this was done was from February 1, 2024 – by 7.4%. Accordingly, its current amount is 630,380.78 rubles for the first child and 833,024.74 rubles for the second. Parents who have already signed up for maternity capital for their first child will receive an additional payment of 202,643.96 rubles at the birth of their second.

As you know, recipients cannot spend maternity capital as they see fit, but only within certain areas approved by law. According to the Ministry of Labor, the most popular area for spending maternity capital funds in 2023 was improving housing conditions. Over 677 thousand families took advantage of this opportunity. The monthly payment for a child under three years of age is the second most popular area; 415 thousand families received it. In third place is education. Last year, 376 thousand parents allocated maternity capital funds for these purposes.

But, as recent opinion polls show, many Russians would like to expand the possibilities of using maternity capital. Thus, almost half of the respondents (47.8%) spoke in favor of an additional opportunity to spend maternity capital on purchasing a car. Every sixth respondent (16.4%) would like to receive this measure of social support in cash and spend it at their own discretion (16.4%), and every tenth (9.9%) would prefer to renovate their existing property.

“MK” asked experts to express their opinion on the possible expansion of areas for spending maternity capital.

Andrey Loboda, economist, director of communications at BitRiver:

“Conversations about expanding the use of maternal capital have been going on for a long time. It is clear that when maternity capital was introduced in 2007, the scope of its application seemed quite wide – the ability to use funds, for example, for a child’s education, was added to the purchase of a home. Over the years since then, it has undergone changes, expanded and scaled. For many, other areas of the use of maternity capital funds have come to the fore.

Proposals to purchase a car using maternity capital funds have been made before. However, the initiative has not yet found a response. The fact is that a car is still a marketable product that can be sold quickly and quite easily. Thus, there is a risk that a car purchased with maternity capital funds is not actually purchased for use by a large family, but for the purpose of resale. This will not work with an apartment – when purchasing real estate using maternal capital, it is necessary to register the shares of minor children in the purchase and sale agreement. A car always has one owner. And one more thing: it is not clear whether the choice of cars under this program will be limited; is it possible to buy, for example, a used car for these purposes?

Expensive treatment is certainly an interesting initiative. However, we do not forget that the Basic Law of the Russian Federation guarantees Russians free medical care in state and municipal healthcare institutions at the expense of budget funds or insurance contributions. Therefore, all the nuances in this proposal should be regulated at the legislative level.

In any case, time passes very quickly, and the population’s needs and wishes for the use of these funds change. Therefore, current updating of maternal capital should occur periodically.”

Polina Gusyatnikova, senior managing partner of the law firm PG Partners:

“In my opinion, it was necessary to expand the areas where maternity capital can be used a long time ago. Today, the main use of maternity capital is the purchase of housing or repayment of a mortgage loan; it is used much less frequently for other purposes. But families have many other needs that are not covered, for example, buying a car and expensive treatment. Permission to use maternity capital for these needs could save a large number of Russians from the need to take out loans, which in the current situation, when the population is overly debt-ridden, would only be a plus.”

Mark Goikhman, analyst at Capital Skills Financial Academy:

“We should expand the scope of use of maternal capital. Its most popular “option”—housing—is becoming less affordable, primarily due to rising real estate prices. As statistics from the Ministry of Labor in recent years show, although real estate remains the most popular area for using maternal capital, the structure of priorities is changing not in its favor.

This confirms the fact that it is necessary to provide more diverse opportunities for families to manage their maternity capital. But in order not to “spray” it, not to devalue the stimulating function, it is worth considering only extremely necessary options for use for life support and the development of families with small children.

It would be advisable to include expensive treatment for mother and child in this “package”. At least, it can sometimes be no less necessary than the already existing opportunity to pay for education. It may be worth considering the costs of necessary holidays for the child in Russia.”