Children's benefits in a new way: the poor are ordered to appraise their property

Irina Mishina

Those who have already received payments for children as a low-income family can either lose it altogether or increase it in the near future. Now there are new rules for everyone - when calculating child benefits, not only income will be taken into account, but also property. And absolutely everything, including garages, parking spaces and sheds.

According to the old rules, payments for children from 3 to 7 years old were assigned to those whose average per capita income did not exceed the subsistence minimum per capita in the region. There were no other conditions for assessing the need. According to the new rules, when assigning a payment, income for 12 months preceding the 4 months before the month of circulation will be taken into account. That is, if you apply in May 2021, your average per capita income will be affected by family budget receipts for the whole of 2020.

Under the new rules, parents will be able to receive 50, 75 and even 100% of the child's living wage every month. In 2021, the amount of payment for children will vary depending on the income of a low-income family.

All those who apply for child benefits were divided into groups.

• 50% (on average in the country 5 650 rubles) - basic size
• 75% (on average in the country 8,475 rubles) - if, with a payment of 50%, the average per capita family income has not reached the regional subsistence level
• 100% (national average 11,300 rubles) - if, with the payment of an allowance in the amount of 75%, the average per capita income still does not reach the regional subsistence minimum.

To be honest, the amount of the allowance, even 100%, makes you wonder: where else to reduce it?

Only for food for a preschool child, including the purchase of specialized products (baby puree, cereals, yoghurts, cottage cheese), you have to spend from 4 to 9 thousand rubles a month, or from 48 to 108 thousand rubles a year. This is the conclusion reached by the independent social movement in support of motherhood and childhood "Moms of Moscow", which conducted a sociological study to determine how much it costs to support one preschool child.

Add clothing to this. Children, as you know, grow up quickly. At the same time, the cost of the most "budgetary" children's autumn jacket now rarely drops below 2 thousand rubles, and warm winter outerwear for children costs at least 4 thousand and is becoming more expensive from year to year. Add to this the fees for kindergarten, speech therapist, developmental classes, as well as paid pediatric dentistry (you have to wait several months for free) - and the amount of the allowance will be at least doubled. But even these insignificant amounts can now be lost by poor families.

Who will be entitled to financial support from the state under the new rules?

Families with an average per capita income below the subsistence level will be able to receive the payment if they own one apartment. If a family has several apartments, the area for each family member should be less than 24 sq. M. If the family has a house or, God forbid, several houses, the area for each family member should be less than 40 sq. M. Non-residential premises and premises occupied by family members suffering from a severe form of chronic disease will not be taken into account.

Those who have at their disposal no more than one summer cottage, one garage, one parking space, or at most two, if the family has many children, will also have the right to receive social assistance. The land plot owned by the family should not exceed 0.25 hectares in urban settlements and 1 hectare if the plot is located in a rural settlement. An applicant family can only have one car. Two - only if the family has many children. A complete list of what low-income families can have to receive child support, as well as the conditions for receiving these benefits, are posted on the website of the Ministry of Labor.

All this has already caused a flurry of criticism in social networks.

“I understand that the Ministry of Labor is copying the aid system in pieces from one European country, but in this country (meaning Italy - editor's note), the amount of property is not taken into account, but it is income without property that is taken into account. And there are payments even to very rich people in certain situations, if state support is needed. Does it make sense to copy the EU model in pieces, but not copy the level of income and the level of benefits? In Italy, Roma without registration living in tents receive an allowance of 40 euros per day !!! (this is 3558 rubles at the new rate). Yes, there really is an income criterion, and someone gets a supplement for a child of only 200 euros to... pay for the university for a YEAR (the rest is paid by the state), but we do not have such a system. Or a disabled person working in the Italian Ministry of Labor receives an additional payment of 300-400 euros for a cleaner, but he works 3-4 times a week, and for at least 1200 euros. In the new Russian system of calculations of the Ministry of Labor, I was especially surprised that a small-engine vessel should be taken into account when the amount of benefits... In Russia, a small-engine vessel is a means of feeding a family and the only means of transport for many hundreds of kilometers in the taiga. And the source of income is seasonal, not year-round as in the Mediterranean. And with cars, too, it is interesting, and with apartments. There is not a word about their cost or remoteness from the place of residence... I guess what all this will lead to among the middle class - they will begin to re-register all this so that they do not pay taxes and still receive benefits”, - wrote the co-author of the project“ Instructions for life "Varvara Snegireva.

True, the economist Andrei Nechayev reasonably objected: “Targeted social assistance should be developed, but the provision of assistance to the owners of estates, since they don't have enough money for their maintenance, it looks strange".

Such cases, of course, do happen. But more often in our reality, there are other situations - for example, when the accounting of property was carried out incorrectly or formally, without taking into account the real life situation. “There are pitfalls in the new rules for calculating child benefits. First, it is important that the property, in connection with which social benefits are reduced, is officially registered. Secondly, it is also important to whom it is registered and how correctly it is estimated. It often happens that the marriage is not officially dissolved, but people do not live together, or the father does not help in raising the child financially. In this case, the property will still be taken into account when calculating the child's allowance for the mother, who already barely makes ends meet. Or the case when the marriage is not officially registered. In this case, the property will not be taken into account. And why register marriages in such conditions? Taking into account that accounting and control of property in our country is often not at the proper level, the accrual of child benefits under the new rules may be unfairly reduced. Thus, innovations related to the recalculation of child allowances can unfairly infringe on many families, ”said Yekaterina Kurbangaleeva, political strategist, deputy chairman of the Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on social policy, to Novye Izvestia.

However, there is a fear that there will be no targeted assistance and taking into account a specific life situation. The news about the Tax and Labor Ministry tightening all possible "screws" - loopholes through which Russian business and the population can still escape from the total control of the Federal Tax Service - is multiplying at an astonishing speed.

The Tax Service has gained expanded access to banking secrecy and can now request from banks copies of customer passports, powers of attorney, agreements for opening accounts and applications for closing them, copies of bank cards with sample signatures and imprints of seals. Also, banks are now required to electronically provide tax information about the beneficiaries of the accounts. The new rules for calculating child benefits are another way to make the life of Russians and possible sources of income completely transparent. The turn has now reached the poor. On this occasion, among the comments in social networks, there are also such: "What is the point of working, acquiring something here in Russia, if most of this is spent on taxes?"