Russia rebuilds social support system

On January 1st, the law on providing target social support measures began operating in Russia. Regions have a right to develop criteria of need independently (need means a financial situation in which the individual or per capita income of a person and members of his family is lower than the living wage in the region of Russia).

Some experts insist that the Ministry of Labor and Social Support must develop common criteria for the whole country. Lyudmila Kostkina, First Deputy Chairwoman of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy, speaks about building the work of the social support system.

According to her, “the entire system of social assistance, protection, state social assistance is being rebuilt today. The system takes into account the overall number of new laws, including Law 184, which appeared in 2012, and in which all the actors, if we are talking about the subjects, the budgets were given the right to gradually move to the criteria of need. Regions define the cost of living in their laws, how it should be repealed as a rule from 1.5 subsistence minimums, that is written in Law 442. But somewhere disabled children receive an allowance, starting from the law of income that determines 2 to 3 living wages. Therefore, families with many children have different gradations as well. The legislation is changing. The parliament advocated that all the money which has been saved and directed for these purposes should only go to social programs, only to social support of certain categories of citizens.”

Kostina says that the issue of the social contract has stalled in the regions. It is aimed at allocation of money to a citizen for purchasing agricultural equipment or cattle to stimulate his labor activity.

Moreover, commenting on problems in the sphere of the new social support system, Kostina points out that the program of social contracts and the number of categories of citizens who need the support is proceeding poorly, as people haven’t been listed in the federal law, including HIV infectees. Today, considering the difficult economic situation, regions are often unable to provide the social support measures.