Russia considering two new bills on maternity support: how effective are the ideas?
In Tatarstan, payments to female students for pregnancy may amount to 76,500 rubles
“These issues have been brewing for a long time,” commented Elina Belyankina, head of Umileniye maternity protection centre, on two new bills that the Russian Ministry of Labor recently proposed. They concern the policy of supporting maternity — in particular, one of them proposes to increase payments to pregnant students by more than 10 times. The second idea involves including the entire period of maternity leave in the insurance period. At the moment, a maximum of six years of maternity leave up to 1.5 years are taken into account. Read more about the need for innovations in a report of Realnoe Vremya.
Maternity benefits of 90,000 rubles
The Russian Ministry of Labour has developed a bill proposing to increase maternity benefits for female students studying full-time to an amount from 74,900 to 235,400 rubles, depending on the region.
Currently, the amount of maternity benefits for female students is only 9,300-23,300 rubles, which is due to the fact that payments depend on the size of scholarships, which range from 2,000 to 5,000 rubles per month. The new bill proposes to change this system.
The benefit will be calculated on the basis of 100% of the subsistence minimum of the working-age population in the region of residence of the student, while scholarships will not be taken into account.
According to the new rules, the minimum benefit amount will be 74.9 thousand rubles for residents of the Lipetsk and Tambov regions, where the subsistence minimum in 2025 will be 16 thousand rubles. At the same time, in Chukotka, where this figure is 50.5 thousand rubles, maternity payments can reach 235.4 thousand rubles.
As Realnoe Vremya calculated using the formula presented in the document, in Tatarstan the benefit amount will be 76.5 thousand rubles. The subsistence minimum for the working-age population in the republic reaches 16.4 thousand rubles.
To implement this bill, it will be necessary to allocate 631.4 million rubles from the federal budget in the first year, which will provide increased benefits for 7 thousand female students. The Ministry of Labour plans to submit a bill to the State Duma during the spring session, and it may be adopted as a priority on the instructions of the president; it is expected to come into force by September.
Inclusion of all maternity leave periods in the insurance record
The second bill, put forward by the Ministry of Labour, proposes to take into account all maternity leave periods in the insurance record. It is also proposed to establish monthly payments at the level of Heroes of Labour for women with Mother Heroine title.
“On the instructions of the president, the Ministry of Labour has prepared a bill that removes the restriction on taking into account periods of caring for a child up to one and a half years in the insurance record. If previously a maximum of 6 years could be counted, or caring for four children in total, now all periods of maternity leave will be taken into account. This will increase the future pension of parents in large families. The innovations will also affect those who have already retired. After the law comes into force, parents with many children will be able to apply to the Social Fund for recalculation of their insurance pension, said Anton Kotyakov, Minister of Labour and Social Protection of Russia.
Heroes of Labour are currently entitled to monthly payments in the amount of 31,900 rubles. They are indexed annually on 1 April in proportion to the growth of the social pension.
In addition to periods of work, the insurance record includes so-called “non-insurance periods””,” including the time spent caring for a child up to one and a half years. At the same time, there is currently a limitation: care for no more than 6 years in total can be counted in the record, which allows taking into account care for only four children.
“The proposals are logical”
Both ideas are relevant, Elina Belyankina, head of Umilenie centre for the protection of motherhood, expressed her opinion in a conversation with Realnoe Vremya.
The speaker added that often the reason for abortion is precisely a difficult financial situation:
“We were often approached by female students who wanted to have an abortion, sometimes at a late stage. Among the reasons were: lack of work, support. With an increase in benefits, girls will more often choose to give birth, because support at least in the first the last few months are the most important thing. A woman needs to recover, and for this she needs to be able to count on something. This is a good help.”
As for the bill on including all maternity leave periods in the insurance record, the initiative will also have a positive effect on the birth rate. Moreover, if the first idea is aimed at supporting the first pregnancy, the second is to support subsequent births.
“In fact, there are still many questions regarding maternity support. Often women lack support during and after childbirth. In Tatarstan, assistance in maternity hospitals is not developed. There was a volunteer project based on the maternity hospital No. 4, but it was closed. Such support increases the desire to have more children. Receiving support during this period, a woman gains confidence and an understanding of how to cope with difficulties,” she concluded.