The Ministry of Labor will take into account fictitious employment and divorce in the rules for assigning a single benefit
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The Ministry of Labor will update the rules for assigning a single benefit to families with children in order to solve the problem of artificially lowering income through fictitious divorces. In 2022, this phenomenon became widespread in a number of regions of the North Caucasus; in some republics, the number of divorces increased several times: since a single benefit is assigned taking into account the income of the spouses, some residents of these regions chose to get a divorce in order to qualify for the payment. The Ministry of Labor also plans to combat fictitious self-employment – by receiving this status, but not performing work, many bypass the “zero income” rule. A number of amendments by the ministry, on the contrary, expand the number of recipients of the benefit – thus, the income of teenagers, interest on deposits opened for supervised children, and payments to recipients of the “Mother Heroine” status will no longer be considered an obstacle to its assignment.
Starting from 2024, the Ministry of Labor wants to change the rules for assigning a single benefit for families with children in order to solve the problem of fictitious divorces for the sake of understating household income, it follows from the draft government resolution prepared by the department (available to Kommersant). This benefit, introduced on January 1, 2023, combines seven types of payments for families with children, including payments introduced during the creation of the system to support the poor in 2021–2022 for families with children from 3 to 17 years old and income below the regional subsistence level. The supplement for a child under 17 years of age is 50%, 75% or 100% of this minimum (from 2024 – 15.4 thousand rubles). Such a social payment is assigned by the Social Fund based on the results of a need assessment – social protection authorities compare data on property and family income according to its databases, the databases of Rosreestr and the Federal Tax Service (for more details, see “Kommersant” dated April 8). The total spending of the budget system on a single benefit in 2023 will amount to 1.144 trillion rubles, in 2024 – 1.6 trillion rubles, this is the largest item of social spending, recipients are the parents of 10.3 million children and 360 thousand pregnant women.
Thanks to the introduction in 2021–2022 of the main component of the unified benefit – payments for children from 3 to 17 years of age – poverty in the Russian Federation in 2022 decreased to 9.8%, the minimum since 2013. The share of children living in poor families fell to 19.1%, the lowest since 2014. However, the benefit also had an unexpected social effect: at the end of 2022, experts from the Accounts Chamber announced an increase in the number of fictitious divorces to understate the income of families for the sake of entitlement to benefits. As Olga Samarina, head of the department of demographic policy and social protection of the joint venture, said in the State Duma, in a number of regions auditors saw “how a family… is denied benefits. They get divorced, apply a second time, and their application is approved and benefits are assigned.” The phenomenon manifested itself even in the demographic indicators of Rosstat: although in the country as a whole in 2022 the number of divorces increased by 4.6%, and marriages by 24.7%, in the North Caucasus District the number of marriages decreased by 9.2%, and divorces — increased by 24.1%. The peak was recorded in Chechnya (an increase in divorces by 64.6% with a decrease in marriages by 56.6%), Dagestan (an increase in divorces by 21.8%) and in Karachay-Cherkessia (by 17%).
The Ministry of Labor intends to solve the problem by changing the procedure for accounting for alimony in the income of divorced applicants. Now they are taken into account when assessing a parent’s need when assigning a single benefit. If alimony is collected through enforcement proceedings, the Social Fund receives data from the bailiff service, but in other cases the applicant himself indicates the amount, and there is no way to check it. To prevent manipulations with fictitious divorces, the Ministry of Labor proposes to take into account in the income of applicants for benefits not the declared amount of alimony, but their norm according to the Family Code (minimum – 25% of the payer’s income for one child, 33% for two, 50% for three or more) , taking the minimum wage as his income. This, notes a Kommersant source in the Ministry of Labor, will motivate single parents to make maximum use of “the tools provided by law to involve the second parent in the maintenance of the child” and “prevent the conclusion of agreements that are obviously unfavorable for him” on alimony. If the parent living with the child has obtained alimony in court, but the debtor does not pay or pays in part, the social security authorities will only take into account the amounts actually transferred. “For example, if the court ordered the mother of the child alimony of 20 thousand rubles, and the father pays 1.5 thousand rubles each, 1.5 thousand rubles will be taken into account – the parent who has taken all steps to protect the interests of the child will receive help.” , says Kommersant’s interlocutor. When paying alimony by oral agreement, but in an amount higher than the minimum norm established by law, it will be taken into account in the amount specified in the application for benefits. It is assumed that the new rules will come into force six months after the publication of the resolution – according to Kommersant’s interlocutor, time is needed so that families in which the second parent evades the voluntary payment of alimony can go through the judicial procedure to determine and collect it.
Another problem for which the Ministry of Labor wants to correct the rules for assigning benefits is fictitious self-employment. Those who work or have a reason not to do so (the so-called zero income rule; see “Kommersant” dated May 16, 2022) can apply for a single benefit. Self-employment is considered work, but, as a source in the Federal Tax Service tells Kommersant, among the self-employed there are many who earn 1–2 thousand rubles a year, and “some of these people can imitate work activity for the sake of the right to benefits.” The Ministry of Labor proposes to consider self-employment as work with a minimum income from it of at least two minimum wages per year (from 2024 – 19.2 thousand rubles).
For some recipients, the Ministry of Labor, on the contrary, intends to simplify access to a single benefit, including by including the income of teenagers in the list of those not taken into account when assigning benefits. “Since the professional demand of college graduates largely depends on whether the guys were able to get an internship during their studies, we cannot allow a situation where the accumulation of such experience may stop due to the need to receive benefits,” notes a Kommersant source in the department. Every year, according to the Social Fund, more than 700 thousand minors (from 14 to 18 years old) work for some period of time. Also, the ministry is ready not to take into account in the income of applicants for benefits interest on nominal deposits for supervised children and payments to bearers of the title “Mother Heroine”, medal and order of “Parental Glory”.
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