The bill on two pensions for disabled children who have lost a parent was rejected

At a meeting on Wednesday, the State Duma rejected the bill of deputies of the faction “A Just Russia – For Truth” (SRZP), proposing to give the right to disabled children who have lost their breadwinner to receive two social pensions at once. The bill had already received a negative opinion from the government, but the discussion in the Duma was still heated. The Social Revolutionaries called for the adoption of the bill, appealing to the fact that this is exactly the case when deputies can show their subjectivity and pass the bill without looking at the will of the Cabinet. The initiative was supported by all opposition factions. United Russia members fought off their opponents as best they could – even comparing the bill to a “pot with a steering wheel” was used.

The Social Revolutionaries, led by faction leader Sergei Mironov, introduced amendments to the law “On State Pension Provision in the Russian Federation” on January 31 of this year. They proposed giving the right to receive two pensions simultaneously to disabled children, as well as to people with disabilities since childhood, studying full-time in educational programs until graduation (but no longer than before reaching the age of 23), who have lost one or both parents. The authors propose paying these categories of citizens both a disability pension and a survivor’s pension. In the explanatory note they refer to systematically received requests from citizens. As the authors note, “when such children also lose one or both of the breadwinners on whom they were dependent, their standard of living drops significantly: the social disability pension alone is no longer enough to buy food, clothing, shoes and other to fully meet your daily needs.” The government did not support the bill, in particular, noting that it did not define sources of financing and the procedure for fulfilling new types of expenditure obligations, which is a violation of Art. 83 of the Budget Code.

Deputy Andrei Kuznetsov, speaking on the bill, pointed out the injustice of equalizing the benefits of disabled children who have lost their breadwinner with disabled children who have parents. The first must choose one of two pensions. According to the deputy, we are talking about 40 thousand disabled children who have lost their parents. “Colleagues, this is absolutely not the money to be haggling like this now about whether they have the right to it or not, whether it contradicts the pension system or not,” Mr. Kuznetsov convinced the deputies. He noted that certain categories in Russia still receive two pensions – these are disabled children whose parents were military personnel and died in the line of military duty. “What is a disabled child to blame for, why does he suffer because his parents are not heroes?” — the co-author of the bill was perplexed.

Svetlana Bessarab (United Russia), reporting the position of the relevant State Duma committee on labor and social policy, agreed with the need to increase the level of material and social security for people with disabilities, but, like the government in her review, she referred to an article in the Budget Code. “Do you really think that a disabled child, and even one who has lost his breadwinner, cannot count on state help?” — Valery Hartung (SRZP) addressed Svetlana Bessarab straightforwardly. To which she replied that she herself personally contacted the Ministry of Labor with a request to provide such citizens with two pensions, but received negative feedback. Ms. Bessarab also said that currently disabled children whose parents participated in a special military operation are not entitled to two pensions, and the committee is trying to change this situation.

Anzhelika Glazkova (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) read out an appeal from a voter who is raising a disabled son alone and is waiting for the adoption of a bill on a double pension. “What should I answer her? That this bill does not take into account the basic principles of pension legislation? Or that our article of the Budget Code is not being implemented?” — the representative of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation asked indignantly.

Speaking from the faction, Valery Hartung said that double pensions for disabled children who have lost their parents will cost the budget about 2 billion a year. “Colleagues, in this room a decision was made to approve a negative excise tax for oil companies in the amount of 3.3 trillion rubles. This is one and a half thousand times more than the amount needed here. What other sources do you need? – the Social Revolutionary was excited. – And here you are telling me that there is no money. You begin to tell that in order for a child to receive two pensions, he must have merits before the state. How will he serve the state? He needs to grow up, but you deny him this right!” Mr. Hartung also did not agree with the need to convince the government on this issue: “Who should be convinced? You vote, not the government. Go ahead and vote, and you don’t need to convince anyone.”

Sardana Avksentieva (“New People”) said that her faction will support the bill because it “complies with the principles of justice and humanity” and “there will be money.”

United Russia member Andrei Alshevskikh pointed out to the authors that they were referring to statistics as of January 1, 2022, which did not take into account new territories. “Of course, we can make adjustments in the second reading,” answered Andrei Kuznetsov. “What needs to happen for this issue to be resolved? Should another party bring it in? Let’s bring it in with another batch.” A remark came from the audience: “Presidential decree.” “Well, listen, the president clearly says: there is an issue that the Duma must resolve,” Mr. Kuznetsov disagreed. “We give the government to solve issues of a much larger volume – two, four trillion, and nothing, such meticulousness does not arise: but where did you get the sources here? No matter where they came from, this is parliament, these are exactly the questions that the Duma can dictate to the government.”

Svetlana Bessarab again took the floor and chose a new line of defense: “The bill was prepared poorly, with errors in almost every line.” And she even illustrated her thought with a metaphor: “Today we are trying to resolve this issue competently, professionally, together with the government. But here it turns out that they wanted to create a car, they somehow put together a pan and let’s add a steering wheel to it. We won’t go like that, colleagues.”

All opposition factions and four United Russia members voted for the bill, one deputy abstained. But 113 votes of parliamentarians were not enough to pass the initiative in the first reading.

Ksenia Veretennikova