Family calculation: who can get a single allowance for children and pregnant women
The number of recipients of the single allowance for children and pregnant women has reached almost 10 million. The annual number of requests for these payments is about 15 million, the press service of the Ministry of Labor told Izvestia. Nevertheless, not all citizens are given such a benefit the first time: in 2024-2025, only 60% of applications had a positive decision. This support measure allows you to receive a payment by submitting only an application; the Social Fund independently requests the rest of the data from other departments and departments. What are the reasons for the refusal and how to get a single child benefit — in the material of Izvestia.
How many people receive a single allowance for children and pregnant women
A single allowance for children and pregnant women receives 15 million requests per year. This benefit was introduced on January 1, 2023. Its main task is to compensate for the shortage of income for families, the press service of the Ministry of Labor told Izvestia. The payment can be accrued from the moment of registration for pregnancy until the child's 17th birthday.
This benefit allows people with low incomes to receive from 50 to 100% of the regional subsistence level for each child or able-bodied person, if charged to a pregnant woman. The average payout in Russia is about 17.2 thousand.
As the ministry recalled, now almost 10 million children and pregnant women receive such support. At the same time, this is a difficult benefit to assign, since dozens of parameters need to be taken into account and analyzed — all the family's monetary income, its composition, and the availability of property, the press service of the Social Fund of Russia (SFR) explained.
Not all of the citizens who applied are given a benefit the first time. For example, in 2024-2025, the share of positive decisions was about 60%. At the same time, in practice, there are cases when a family receives payments after repeated treatment, the ministry's press service noted.
Often, some people inattentively fill out applications when submitting documents, says Yulia Finogenova, Professor of the Department of State and Municipal Finance at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.
In addition, the technical and administrative complexity of the procedure can lead to failures, Anastasia Gorelkina, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of HC SDS JSC, member of the Board of Directors of KAO Azot, is convinced.
— Automatic verification systems also fail: data from various departments, including the tax and cadastral services, are not always synchronized correctly, which leads to erroneous failures. Employees of social funds who work with a large volume of applications are not always able to quickly track down all inaccuracies, and applicants have to submit documents again in order to achieve a fair solution, the expert explained.
Any error in the data, even a formal one, can become grounds for refusal, Anastasia Gorelkina emphasized. However, a repeated application, when the family clarifies the information or adds missing documents, most often leads to a positive decision.
However, there are real cases when the allowance cannot be assigned at all. As the press service of the Ministry of Labor explained to Izvestia, the decision to refuse is made if the family does not meet the criteria for targeted payments: the application contains false information, parents have a large income, people have either no earnings at all over the past year, or it is lower than the minimum requirements for no objective reason.
The upper income threshold for assigning benefits is calculated as follows: the earnings of both spouses for a year are added up, then divided by the number of all family members and for 12 months. If this amount is less than the regional subsistence level, the allowance will be assigned, if more, the refusal will be received.
How to apply for a single child allowance
You can apply for benefits in a few minutes in two ways — electronically at Gosuslugi or in person at the offices of the MFC and the Social Fund. At the same time, a person should not independently calculate the amount of income for the past year and its average per capita amount, as well as the security of property, or collect the necessary certificates.
The exception, when supporting documents are still needed, is a long—term illness or the presence in the family of a person suffering from a severe form of chronic illness, in which it is impossible for citizens to live together in the same room.
Independently, quickly and without mistakes, it may be difficult for people to assess their compliance with the criteria, the SFR added. Therefore, in practice, the application is often used as a way to verify its compliance with the conditions for receiving support, the Social Fund's press service noted.
In order to ensure the targeting of payments and the fairness of the appointment, many parameters are taken into account, as well as the life circumstances of the family, the Ministry of Labor explained. For example, the income structure considers funds received from work, business, bank deposits, winnings, as well as pensions, scholarships, alimony, and dividends.
The main requirement for receiving a single income allowance is that the amount be below the regional subsistence level. However, there are criteria for property and savings.
Realty:
- one or more apartments if the area for each family member is less than 24 sq. m.;
- one or more houses if the area per family member is less than 40 square meters. m;
- no more than one cottage;
- only one garage, parking space (large families or families with a person with a disability can have two facilities each);
- a plot of land with a total area of no more than 0.25 hectares for urban residents or no more than 1 hectare for rural residents;
- only one non-residential building.
This does not take into account outbuildings and basements, housing that is uninhabitable, as well as those provided as a measure of support (except for those purchased with maternity capital).
Transport:
- no more than one car (if the family has many children, there is a disabled person, or the vehicle was received as social support, then two cars are allowed);
- one motorcycle (two are possible under the same conditions as with a car);
- one unit of self-propelled vehicles under the age of five (if the vehicle is considered as a measure of social support, then two units are allowed);
- one boat or motorboat under the age of five.
Savings:
- The annual income from interest should not exceed the subsistence minimum per capita.
If the account is closed no later than six months before the request, the income is not considered.
However, there are some nuances that should be considered when applying for benefits. You can submit an application for the first time at any time after the birth of the child. However, there is an important condition: if the application is filed in the first six months of the baby's life, then the allowance will be assigned from the date of birth and the entire amount for the past months will be paid. If the application is submitted later than six months, payments will begin from the month of application.
Also, a mother who previously received maternity benefits can apply for child benefits as early as the next month after giving birth. At the same time, maternity benefits are paid up to and including the month when the child is born.
As explained in the Ministry of Labor: if a family already receives a single allowance for older children and another child appears in the family, then the allowance for a newborn will be processed automatically, without the need to submit a new application. According to Natalia Budko, a member of the Moscow regional branch of Delovaya Rossiya, such assistance is important in conditions of low birth rates.
This support measure is targeted and is intended to help those families who really need it, the Social Fund's press service explained to Izvestia.
— In other words, a single benefit is a measure aimed at reducing poverty. It is addressed to those families who are in a state of "systemic poverty," in particular due to low-paid employment," said Lilia Ovcharova, Vice—rector and Director of the HSE Institute for Social Policy.
She added that there are other tools available to combat situational short-term poverty, such as support for the unemployed and a social contract program.
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