532,000 applications have been submitted for a single benefit, a new support measure for pregnant women and families with children under 17. Payment processing opened on December 28 on the portal of public services for families from all regions of Russia, including four new entities.
To date, the Social Fund has accepted applications for a single allowance for almost a million children under 17 years of age and 32,000 applications for a single allowance for pregnant women. Work on consideration of applications of the branch of the Social Fund began on January 3. On January 4, the foundation also accepted personal applications from parents for benefits. The client services of the FIS worked according to a special schedule so that the Russians had the opportunity to issue a new payment and apply for other issues. On January 5, the Social Fund held a meeting with regional offices, at which the issues of assigning a single allowance were discussed. As a result, to date, payments have already been made for more than 5,000 families.
In addition, parts of the parents’ applications were received for benefits for the first child under 3 years old. Now this payment is included in a single allowance and is issued according to the new rules. At the same time, if the child was born in the family before 2023, parents can apply for a payment under the previously existing conditions. That is, without taking into account property and if the family has higher incomes (within two living wages per person, and not one, as in the case of a single allowance). As a result, 17,000 parents applied for the payment for the first child according to the previous rules.
In general, the single allowance replaced five previously existing support measures for needy families. These are two monthly payments for the first and third child under 3 years old, two monthly payments for children from 3 to 8 years old and children from 8 to 17 years old, as well as a monthly payment for pregnancy. The new allowance is assigned to families with incomes below the regional subsistence level per person. Children and parents must be Russian citizens and permanently reside in Russia. When assigning a payment, a comprehensive assessment of the income and property of the family is applied, and the employment of parents is also taken into account.