At the end of 2021 and 2022, social contracts have proven to be a popular tool to help reduce poverty in Russia. In this respect writer “Kommersant”, referring to the SAI auditors’ report, “analysis of the effectiveness of state social assistance provision in 2021 and 2022 on the basis of a social contract in terms of poverty reduction.”
The social contract is one of the means of state aid for the low-income population. So, for more than two years, more than 558 thousand such contracts were signed with low-income citizens, with each contract worth an average of 55.5 thousand rubles. This helped 1.8 million people.
The document noted that the largest share of state contracts fell on job seeking, such deals were concluded by 39% of Russians. In second place was a social contract for starting a business, which 28% of those in need decided to take. The social contract to get out of a difficult life situation, which turned out to be necessary for 22% of Russians, closes the top three.
According to the auditors, in the future, the Russian authorities need to increase the amount of spending on social contracts and revise the methodology of allocating funds by region, since last year some of them demanded more funds than already allocated.
At the end of March, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin at a government meeting declarationthe government’s proposal to establish common approaches to calculating family income. He said the Cabinet of Ministers will consider a draft law that allows the establishment of common criteria for citizens to understand about receiving social assistance, including on the basis of the social contract.