State Duma deputies are considering changes to maternity capital policies, proposing to limit first-born eligibility to mothers who are 25 to 30 years old or to redirect payments toward supporting a second child. Representatives of the expert community argue that tying childbearing support to the mother’s age is not appropriate and that the program should focus on broader family outcomes, according to reports cited by News.
The publication notes that these proposals will influence the expansion of the maternity capital program in 2026. Both the government and the State Duma indicate that if Russia’s birth rate continues to decline, the country needs to reassess how subsidies for childbirth are provided and used to encourage family growth.
Most experts criticized the MPs’ idea.
Vladimir Shchekin, the developer behind the RDD housing cluster, argued that restricting eligibility by maternal age would be a misstep. He noted that in Russia, as in many developed nations, the average age at which women have their first child is rising. The common age for new parents entering the housing market and starting families sits around 35, which exceeds the proposed cutoff from lawmakers.
Alexander Sinelnikov, a professor in the Department of Sociology of Family and Demography at the Faculty of Sociology of Moscow State University, said there is no justification for limiting maternity capital by age. He pointed out that many women still give birth after the age of 30 today. He added that the program had a positive impact on the birth rate up to around 2015, after which the number of births began to fall. He cited several contributing factors, including deteriorating economic conditions and broader social trends.
Ruslan Syrtsov, the general director of Metrium, observed that deputies seem to assume late-age first births do not trigger the same family-building effects as earlier births. Nevertheless, he argued that even if life circumstances lead a woman to have a first child at 30 or 40, it should not mean there is no financial support available for that family.
Earlier, political scientist Georgy Bovt described demographic problems as “too serious to be dismissed by proposals that lack depth.” (Source: News)
Alexander Sinelnikov, former professor at the Department of Family Sociology and Demography at Moscow State University, warned that Russia could see a “secondary repercussion” after introducing maternity capital, potentially influencing birth rates in the long term. (Source: News)