Into the future with money: what you can spend your extended maternity capital on
The Federation Council has approved a new law extending the maternity capital program until December 31, 2030. The funds can be spent on improving living conditions, educating children, forming a funded pension, and purchasing goods and services for the social adaptation and integration of disabled children into society. You can also receive monthly payments in connection with the birth or adoption of a child until they reach the age of three. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
What can the extended maternity capital be spent on
The Federation Council approved amendments to the law "On additional measures of state support for families with children."
— On behalf of the president of the country, the operation of the mother capital program is extended until December 31, 2030, the Ministry of Labor told Izvestia. — From 2027 to 2030, it is planned to allocate an additional 2.8 trillion rubles from the federal budget for these purposes, which will provide maternity capital to almost 5 million families.
Elena Perminova, head of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy, reminded Izvestia that maternity (family) capital (MC) was introduced in 2007, while its program was constantly being improved. According to her, the demographic change required the extension of the MK program from 2020 to families in which the first children were born or adopted.
In total, according to the Federation Council, families with children have already been provided with 14.2 million state certificates for maternity capital, of which almost 2.3 million state certificates were issued to families at the birth of their first child.
According to Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children's Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, recently, the number of ways to use maternity capital has increased significantly — families can direct MC funds both to repay mortgage loans and to participate in a funded pension. The extended payment, according to her, can also be spent on receiving monthly payments in connection with the birth or adoption of a child until he reaches the age of three and the social adaptation of children with disabilities.
According to the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, the most popular way to use the maternity capital remains to improve living conditions. Since the beginning of the program, 71.2% of families who received the certificate have used the funds in this area. Recently, there has been a growing demand for the use of funds for children's education (in 2022 — 24.5%, in 2024 — 28.2%). Last year, about 600,000 families with children received monthly payments from the MC.
Izvestia sent a request about the legislative innovations of the parent capital to Nina Ostanina, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family Protection, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood, but no response had been received at the time of publication.
What amounts can families expect
The size of the MC is indexed annually from February 1 according to the level of actual inflation, the Ministry of Labor said. If the family has spent part of the maternity capital, the rest of the money is also recalculated. In 2025, the amount of payment for the first child born in 2020 and for the second child born from 2007 to January 1, 2020, is 690,266.95 rubles.
For a second child born or adopted starting in 2020, 912,162.09 rubles are due if they have not received a certificate before. If the certificate was issued earlier, then 221,895.1 rubles will be charged for the second one.
Senator Perminova recalled that last year amendments to the legislation were adopted, which make it possible to receive as a one-time payment the remaining funds of the parent capital in the amount of no more than 10 thousand rubles. 135 thousand people used the right to it in 2024. citizens (the total amount is 525 million rubles).
According to the latest data from the Social Fund of the Russian Federation, in 2024, the SFR approved 1.6 million family orders on maternity capital.
How the uterus prevents the birth rate from falling
Yuri Krupnov, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Institute of Demography, Migration and Regional Development (IDMRR), notes that maternity capital plays a fundamental role in the sustainability and maintenance of the existing birth rate. Maternity capital does not increase, but it prevents a further drop in the birth rate, said expert.
He adds that small increases in fertility after the introduction or increase of MC should not be mistaken for direct results of payments. Mother Capital mobilizes fertility, but only by accelerating delayed births, the demographer explained.
— Maternity capital did not so much directly affect the increase in the birth rate, as it significantly improved the well—being of young families," believes Oksana Dmitrieva, ex-Minister of Labor of the Russian Federation, member of the State Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes.
However, according to her, such measures and incentive and guarantee programs should arise on a quarterly basis, at the federal, regional and municipal levels.
Galina Bannykh, a sociologist from Ural Federal University, notes that since 2020, when payments began to be provided for the first child, some experts have noted a decrease in the effectiveness of the program. However, in general, according to her, taking into account the "demographic pit" of generations of parents, the program has had an impact on supporting and stimulating fertility, and most importantly, on changing attitudes towards it.
— The role of regions is also significant due to their significant socio-economic differences, says the sociologist.—u> It is important to pay attention to the trends: the average age of birth of the first child is about 26.2 years. Residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg have their first children later than anyone else in the Russian Federation (but earlier than in developed countries), and the European North is outside the GFZ.
And this should be taken into account in the development of a pro-natalist policy, the expert is convinced.
Initially, this measure was planned as a way to partially resolve the housing issue. This issue is fundamental for a young family planning to have a child, explains Albert Bakhtizin, Director of the Central Economic and Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (CEMI), member of the State Council Commission of the Russian Federation.
— Since the purchasing power of the mother capital relative to square meters began to decrease, we decided to expand the directions of its use," the source notes. — But in this case, the original goal is blurred and the main task of increasing the birth rate is not solved, for which everything was started.
The economist adds that the indexation of maternity capital, although a necessary measure, is currently purely cosmetic and unlikely to increase housing affordability. Thus, over the five-year period from 2019 to 2024, the maternity capital, adjusted for inflation, increased 1.84 times, and the cost of housing in the primary market in Russia increased 2.72 times on average, Bakhtizin notes.
In his opinion, the mother capital program itself is in increasing need of significant adjustments today. If the state is interested in a more effective mechanism for increasing the birth rate, efforts should be directed towards a real solution to the housing problem, he is sure. The MK could be more variable depending on the place of residence, the type and area of housing and the number of children.
Also, according to the head of the CEMI, it is necessary to provide for a progressive coefficient that increases the payment depending on the number of children in the family, and plan additional adjustments to the amount depending on where exactly housing is being bought and what type it is. That is, he believes, it would be possible to increase the payment if an IHS facility is being purchased and further increase it if housing is not located in large cities to relieve the country's megacities.
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