Deception for the sake of survival: why Russians began to divorce more often

As you know, during the two-year coronavirus pandemic, many Russian citizens found themselves without work, and therefore without income. The state was forced to help them by increasing social benefits. For example, only support for the family, motherhood and childhood was increased almost three times and amounted to 12 billion rubles. Parents still receive state assistance for children under the age of 17. Here is maternity capital, and benefits for schoolchildren and preschool children... Moreover, from June 1, 2022, some payments and benefits have increased by 10%. So after the birth of a child, the monthly payment is 11,917 rubles. Benefits for children aged 3-7, depending on the family income, will range from 6 to almost 12 thousand rubles...

This is what prompts many Russians to consider social payments not as support in difficult times, but as a source of the main income, for the sake of which they began to file divorces en masse, depriving their fathers of the official status of the breadwinner. So, for 11 months of 2021, 8,540 married couples divorced in the Orenburg region, which is 1,157 more than in 2020, writes the online publication 56orb.ru.

And there are those who, in order to appear poorer than they really are, rewrite jointly acquired property to relatives or even acquaintances.

It is no secret that, for example, single mothers receive a larger social package than married women, and therefore they choose not a stamp in their passport, but state support, leaving their marriage “civil”. Therefore, men are less and less likely to insist on establishing paternity - for the same period in 2021, there were 201 fewer such acts than in 2020.

But an even more frightening trend is that many families simply do not want to have children during this difficult period.

Sociologist Galina Sheshukova commented on this situation to the publication:

“I would not blame our Orenburg residents for deceiving the state. The state itself is to blame for being deceived. The country is experiencing a decline in income. Crisis, covid, special operation, the exit of a lot of companies from Russian business, and, as a result, hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs. In my opinion, the only way out of the most difficult situation for the country is to stop issuing money targeted, so that people do not have to deceive the state, so that they do not seek divorces for the sake of benefits..."

The sociologist believes that it would be much more efficient for the state to pay benefits in the amount of the subsistence minimum to all families with children, regardless of income. This would allow them to feel their security, and begin to raise the birth rate. But today in Russia it is two times lower than the mortality rate...