‘It is a great trust in the republic’: maternity capital expert centre being created in Tatarstan

Maternity Capital Expert Centre has been deployed in Tatarstan

The Tatarstan branch of the Social Fund has assigned pensions, maternity capital and other social benefits to residents of Baikonur for several years. Since last year, it has been serving the population of Lugansk, and since February of this year, additional functions have been imposed on the department — for the appointment and payment of maternity capital in Dagestan. From 1 February, Kazan begins remotely accepting applications from residents of the North Caucasus region. It is noteworthy that the next stage will be the creation of an all-Russian expert centre in the republic on this profile:

“What is an “expert centre”? We have areas of activity, for example, the maternity capital, the appointment of pensions and so on, it is quite possible that in the future this will be combined within one region. Now a preliminary decision has been made that the expert centre on maternal family capital will be deployed on the basis of Tatarstan, so there will be no such work in other regions," Eduard Vafin, the head of the SFR department, said during the presentation before the start of the board meeting.

Dagestan is comparable in population to Tatarstan — 3.2 million people. “We are ready for this work. They contacted every head of the Dagestan administration, every educational institution, in order to conclude agreements with them. The heads are meeting us halfway, providing information. This is not only professionalism, but also great trust in our republic," Vafin believes. “Today, the Social Fund of Tatarstan operates not only on the territory of the republic, but also in Russia. This, of course, speaks about the quality of your work," Tatarstan Deputy Prime Minister Leyla Fazleeva later noted.

Maternity capital is the largest cash payment at the birth of children, which is now being issued proactively, that is, without applications. Over the entire period, 408.6 thousand certificates have been issued in Tatarstan, of which 23.3 thousand — in 2023. Since the beginning of the programme, the amount of maternity capital has increased 3 times and on February 1, it was again indexed by 7.4%, for the first child — 630.4 thousand, for the second — 833 thousand rubles.

Tatarstan citizens were paid sick leave for 21 billion rubles

Being one of the largest in the Volga Region, the Tatarstan branch of the SFR serves more than 1,106 million pensioners, 321 thousand recipients of social benefits, and over 217 thousand policyholders. The total amount of expenses amounted to more than 338 billion rubles last year.

Speaking about the results of the activity, the head of the department said that the insurance pensions of non-working pensioners were indexed by 4.8% in 2023, and from January 1, 2024 — by 7.5%. The average size of the old-age insurance pension has been increased by 2,834 rubles. From February 1 of that year, monthly cash payments increased by 11.9%, and from April 1— social pensions increased by 3.3%. Over the year, more than 34 thousand disability pensions were issued in the republic, without any application, basing on the data of the medical and social assessment bureau. By December, the average size of pensions for veterans and participants of the Great Patriotic War amounted to 38,237.9 rubles (disabled due to military trauma), 49,717.6 (participants), 34,761.6 (widows). Within the framework of public services, the SFR received 1,010,500 requests in electronic form. The operators of the Unified Contact Centre processed more than 1.5 million requests from citizens.

The fund paid great attention to measures of social support for the participants of the special military operation and their family members, providing the fighters with rehabilitation funds worth 46.2 million rubles. Monthly payments were assigned to 3,613 combat veterans, one Hero of Russia and two family members of the deceased Hero of Russia. 209 pregnant wives of mobilised servicemen received a one-time allowance. A monthly allowance was paid in respect of 1,098 children mobilised in the amount of 15,548.07 rubles per child.

Another important block of work is the system of support measures for families with children from 0 to 17 years old, as well as pregnant women who have registered at an early date — the one-time allowance (EP). The recipients of the monthly payment are 209,275 Tatarstan children, more than 18.9 billion rubles were allocated for payments. The amount of the single allowance for families with children depends on the regional minimum subsistence level for children, which will increase from February 1 and amount to: 50% — 6,370.50 rubles; 75% — 9,555.75 rubles; 100% — 12,741 rubles. Unified maternity allowance: 50% — 7,158.50 rubles; 75% — 10,737.75 rubles; 100% — 14,317 rubles.

Last year, almost 1 million Tatarstan citizens took sick leave — 988.1 thousand cases of temporary disability were registered in the fund. Expenses related to temporary disability and maternity amounted to more than 21 billion rubles. Since this year, the maximum amount of daily sick pay has been increased 1.5 times, to 4,039 rubles. More than 24.5 thousand mothers on maternity leave received child care benefits for up to one and a half years. The total amount of funds allocated amounted to 3.8 billion rubles.

Vouchers for sanatorium treatment totalling 87 million rubles were received by 1.3 thousand beneficiaries. Another 1.5 thousand workers with work injuries and occupational diseases were rehabilitated for 93.1 million. About 6.3 thousand victims of industrial accidents and occupational diseases were additionally rehabilitated for 325.1 million. More than a thousand victims received rehabilitation equipment.

Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan Leyla Fazleeva positively assessed the work of the Department of the Social Fund for Tatarstan and outlined the tasks for this year. In particular, they talked about creating a single digital platform that provides a proactive mode.

“We understand that this allows us to be closer to every resident of the republic and ensure the fastest possible interaction with a citizen in order to answer his or her questions. The Social Fund provides many services in a proactive manner, many ministries need to strive for this," the deputy prime minister said.

Besides, according to her, at he instruction of the rais of the Republic of Tatarstan, an agreement has been reached that part of the services of the Social Fund will be provided on the basis of the Multifunctional Public Services Centres.

Innovations of 2024

In his speech, Eduard Vafin highlighted the innovations of this year. For example, in order to increase the real income of the family, a law was adopted on the preservation of child care benefits if a parent returns to work earlier. “If previously a parent on maternity leave went to work ahead of time, he or she lost child care allowance. Since January of this year, such parents will continue to receive payments," the speaker said. There are other important changes:

• insurance and social pensions for the loss of a breadwinner, as well as social pensions for children whose both parents are unknown, will be assigned in an undeclared manner;

• insurance pensions of non-working pensioners have been indexed by 7.5%, the amount of the fixed payment is 8,134.88 rubles, the cost of the pension coefficient — 133.05 rubles.;

• new maximum amounts of benefits have been established, the maximum for temporary disability per month is 122,807.79 rubles. — with an insurance record of 8 years or more (100% of average earnings), 98,246.23 rubles. — with an insurance record of 5 to 8 years (80% of average earnings), 684.67 rubles. — with an insurance record of up to 5 years (60% of average earnings);

• the maximum amount of maternity benefits for working women is 565,562.20 rubles, which is provided on condition of long-term maternity leave (up to 194 days) and difficult childbirth;

• maximum monthly child care allowance is 49,123.12 rubles;

• a monthly payment of 10,000 rubles to persons caring for children with disabilities and those with disabilities since childhood of group I will be provided not only to unemployed, but also to partially employed parents or guardians working on a part-time basis, including on the specified conditions remotely or at home;

• monthly child care allowance will be retained by the mother and other persons entitled to the allowance when they go to work before the child reaches 1.5 years of age, including on part-time, home work, remote work, and in the case of work with another employer;

• the right to maternity capital now arises only for parents who have Russian citizenship at the time of the birth of a child who is a citizen of the Russian Federation;

• with the funds of the mother capital, it is possible to reconstruct the house of the blocked building to improve housing conditions;

• single fathers (or sole adoptive parents) who raise children and are eligible for maternity capital can direct the maternity capital to form their funded pension.