New housing and communal services reform: who will receive discounts on utility bills

Preferential categories of citizens will save up to 50%

In Russia, there are many categories of beneficiaries who are entitled to a discount on utility bills – these are participants in the Great Patriotic War, war veterans, educators, and the disabled. They receive payments with the full amount, but pay only part of it, taking into account the discount. There are also subsidies, when the state compensates part of the costs of housing and communal services to citizens in the form of direct payments – these are those Russians whose share of spending on utility bills exceeds the allowable norm in the region. Now the Ministry of Construction proposes to unify the approach to benefits and subsidies so that citizens immediately receive a discount in the payment, and compensation will be sent to resource supply organizations, and not to citizens. Will the categories of recipients of “discounts” change, “MK” understood.

The Ministry of Construction will provide Russian beneficiaries with a discount of up to 50% on utility bills. The amount of each specific discount will depend on the preferential category. It is assumed that the tenant will immediately pay less for a communal apartment, and the state will directly send the difference to resource providers, thereby compensating their expenses.

In our country, about 3.5 million people are annually recipients of benefits for housing and communal services. The figure varies depending on the number of incoming applications to the social security authorities.

Subsidies are a completely different matter. And here everything is calculated differently, based on the share of household expenses. If a family spends more than the allowable rate of 22% on paying for communal services, then they are entitled to assistance.

The bottom line is that people with a fairly high level of income can be beneficiaries of a communal apartment. For example, retired judges or honored artists who, as part of the state award, are also entitled to benefits from housing and communal services. In total, there are several dozen such categories in Russia. The list may vary by region.

No one will pay less after the implementation of the idea of ​​​​the Ministry of Construction, said Pavel Sklyanchuk, an expert of the “People’s Front” in the field of housing and communal services, a member of the Public Council of the federal project “School of a Literate Consumer”. Only the procedure for obtaining subsidies will change. It will become easier. In 2024, as part of the creation of the electronic domain “Housing and Utilities and Urban Environment”, the “Citizen” service will appear. It is through him that the reimbursement of expenses for payment of housing and communal services for citizens receiving support measures from the state will go.

“Every year, about 70 billion rubles are allocated from the federal budget for these purposes. There are about 3.5 million citizens receiving subsidies for housing and communal services. On average, the state pays about 1.5-2 thousand rubles a month to low-income citizens. For this amount, they will pay less in the end, ”says the expert.

There are no specifics yet, but it is already clear that different categories of beneficiaries will receive different discounts, emphasizes Ivan Samoilenko, managing partner of the B&C Agency communications agency.

“Apparently, everything will depend on the level of income and the share of expenses for housing and communal services. People can expect a 10 to 50% discount on utility bills. And this will affect many privileged categories – families with many children, veterans, disabled people, families with adopted children … That is, in fact, benefits will be provided for millions of citizens, ”he explains.

Now the Ministry of Construction is proposing this measure in order to increase the collection of payments – due to difficulties in the economy and the stagnation of incomes of the population, the debt for housing and communal services is gradually growing. Although Pavel Sklyanchuk doubts that it is the poor who are the worst offenders.

“As a rule, it is the economically active population that accumulates debts. And not always for objective reasons. And it’s just those who need to be fought, and not people who do not have enough money for mandatory expenses, ”the expert concludes.