Press center

Client services of the Russian Pension Fund and the unified call center stayed open on weekends and holidays in May to receive applications from families for a new benefit for children aged from eight to 17. The submission of applications began on May 1. Besides the public services portal, the applications were accepted at 2,000 territorial divisions of the fund. On May 1-3 and May 7-10, territorial offices were working on a special schedule and receiving applications for the new benefit for parents’ convenience. Service was provided by 4,000 PFR specialists on holidays.

Some 55,000 families spent maternity capital on building or renovating their home last year. Except for Moscow, the option was most frequently used by residents of the Krasnodar Territory where over 3,000 applications of the sort were filed.  Residents of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region also preferred building a house to buying one. Some 2,400 families spent the money that way.

Since May 1, the call center has received over 10,000 calls about the new benefit for children aged from eight to 17. Most frequently, the callers asked about the procedure of benefit assignment and the way of evaluation of family needs. Parents also asked how to file the application correctly and how documents certifying the right to the benefit can be presented.

Dear veterans and participants in the Great Patriotic War!

As many as 87% of applications were filed with the Russian Pension Fund in the first quarter of this year in the online format, via an account on the PFR website or on the public services portal.

Since the beginning of this year, over 244,000 families spent maternity capital funds on the improvement of their living conditions. Same as before, this is the most popular option of the program. Over half, or 61% of all applications filed since January 1, chose that option.

The Pension Fund has been assigning maternity capital in the pro-active mode, without applications being filed by parents, since mid-April 2020. More than 1.7 mln certificates have been issued for the first and second children in this format over the past two years.

Russians who retire this year will receive the first payment of the assigned pension twice faster. The new rules took effect in January. According to them, the first pension is paid within seven working days instead of 15 days, as it was before 2022. The period begins on the day the pension is assigned.

The pro-active assignment of insurance and social disability pensions began on January 1, 2022. Such pensions and social benefits, including a package of social services, are assigned on the day a person is declared disabled consistent with information from the Federal Register of Disabled Persons without providing respective certificates to the Pension Fund. More than 41,200 disabled persons had their pensions pro-actively assigned since the beginning of this year. These people were not pensioners before they became disabled. Whenever a current pensioner becomes disabled, the PFR assigns a monthly benefit.

Families with low income and children aged from 8 to 17 can apply for new benefits from May 1, 2022. The benefit will be paid for the period since April 1. A family that files an application after May 1 will receive the benefit for two months, both April and May, on condition that a child turned eight as of April.