Over the first eight months of 2019, the Russian Pension Fund received 66,000 applications for monthly payment of maternity capital funds. The number of such applications tripled year on year. Related expenditures grew even more, five times, and reached 5.4 billion rubles by September.
In all, 108,000 families have signed such applications by now.
Please note that one may apply for the monthly payment any time over 1.5 years since the birth or adoption of the second child. Applications filed with the Pension Fund within the first six month will result in payments since the date of birth or adoption, and the family will receive money for the entire period. Applications filed after six months will result in payments starting on the application date. The money is transferred to the account of the maternity capital certificate holder in a Russian bank.
Applications for the monthly payment can be filed with any client service or branch of the Pension Fund irrespective of the place of residence of the maternity capital certificate holder. It is also possible to apply for the monthly payment in one’s account on the PFR website. Families entitled to maternity capital which have not received the certificate can do that simultaneously with filing their application for the monthly payment.
The size of the payment depends on the region and corresponds to the regional child subsistence minimum established in the second quarter of the previous year. In 2019, the payment amounted to the child subsistence minimum of the second quarter of 2018. For your convenience, the PFR website has the monthly payment calculator, which helps establish whether the family qualifies for the payment and what is the size of the payment in a particular region.
More families will quality for the monthly payment starting 2020. Relevant amendments to the maternity capital program were adopted this year. According to those amendments, the maximum monthly income per capita, which makes the family qualify for the monthly family, grows from 1.5 to 2 subsistence minimums. The period of monthly payments will also double; they will continue till the second child turns three.