Some conditions of the unified allowance assignment will change on July 21, to help identify the payout entitlements more accurately and target the support better. From now on, periods of care for a disabled person will be counted as a good reason for the lack of income or income lower than 8 minimum wage amounts when assessing a family's financial position, only if the blood relation between the applicant or a family member and the person receiving care is confirmed. The procedure for verifying residence at the place of stay or actual living has also changed.
Previously, caring for a disabled person was considered a good reason in the context of the unified allowance assignment, regardless of blood ties. Now, it is only allowed if the applicant or their family member is caring for their immediate family, i.e. their spouse, child, parent, sibling or grandparent. The new rule applies for caring for disabled persons Group I, persons aged 80 or older or elderly persons in need of full time assistance as verified by a healthcare institution. Just as previously, the fact and the period of care have to be reported to the Social Fund of Russia.
After submitting an application for the unified allowance, the applicant has to prove that they are related to the person being cared for. That can be done via birth, marriage, name change certificates or other documents that establish family relations. If a woman is caring for her husband's grandmother, for instance, she has to provide her marriage certificate, her husband's birth certificate and the birth certificate issued to her husband's father or mother (depending on whose mother the grandmother being cared for is). If an applicant's husband is caring for the applicant's sister who is a Group I disabled person, the applicant has to provide her marriage certificate and birth certificates for both her and her sister to prove the family relationship.
If the reason for the lack of income has been in force for 10 months of the reporting period or longer, the minimum income requirement does not apply. For shorter periods, the required income level is calculated in proportion to the number of months when the reason for the lack of income was not in force.
Another change covers unified allowance application submitted at the place of stay or actual residence. Previously, the fact of residence had to be proven only if the subsistence minimum in the region where the application was submitted was higher than that in the region the allowance had been assigned previously. Starting on July 21 all application submitted at the place of stay or actual residence have to undergo a check of that kind.
The Social Fund verifies most of the data independently, through interdepartmental communications. Those are data pertaining to the employer, the region where the social contract was signed or unemployment benefits, pension or housing&utilities subsidy assigned, where the large family status was granted, as well as the place of residence of the disabled child or incapacitated family member being cared for.
If the data received confirm the specified region and do not contradict each other, no further paperwork is required. If the residence cannot be automatically confirmed, the applicant will be asked to provide a housing lease or a certificate of attendance for the child from a kindergarten, a school, a college or a university. After the place of stay or actual residence is confirmed, the application is reviewed as per the general procedure.
Applications may be submitted on the Public Services Portal, at a Social Fund client office or a multifunctional center. If you have any questions, you can call the unified call center for free: 8 800 100-00-01.