Family contracts: extended family groups and affordable taxis are not enough for those with many children

The measures to support large families and increase the birth rate, which the president outlined in his instructions, are not being fully implemented, according to the monitoring of the Popular Front. For example, there are still not enough extended day groups — 60% of parents surveyed by the movement complain about this. There are complaints about discrimination against families with children when traveling in a taxi. And the purchase of housing, despite the availability of preferential mortgage programs, remains inaccessible due to the established limits. Taxi fares should be the same for passengers with and without children, the State Duma agrees. About what other problems of large families are not being solved effectively enough, see the Izvestia article.

What the monitoring revealed

The instructions of the President of Russia concerning social support for large families and increasing the birth rate are not fully implemented in practice. This is the conclusion reached by the experts of the Popular Front based on the monitoring results (Izvestia has it).

"Despite the movement in most areas, a number of systemic problems have been identified that make it difficult to fully implement these measures in practice," the document says.

So, there are serious difficulties with the availability and quality of extended day groups. According to monitoring data, 60% of parents reported that there are either no such groups or they are too expensive. The Popular Front survey covered almost 42.7 thousand respondents with children from 89 regions of Russia.

"Even among those families whose children receive the service, there are many complaints about the quality of the extended day groups. Every seventh parent noted some difficulties. Most often, we are talking about a lack of attention from teachers (35%), lack of hot meals (24%), lack of educational programs (20%) and early termination of groups (20%)," the experts noted.

The parents also called the limited number of places in the extensions a serious problem. For example, in some cases, only eight seats are allocated for a class of 25 people.

Discrimination against families with children also persists when traveling by taxi, the social movement said. The Popular Front has identified cases where drivers refused to take orders at a child rate or did not transport passengers with children at a regular rate, despite having their own child safety seat. Experts believe that the very existence of different tariffs indicates the persistence of a biased attitude towards families with children.

The children's tariff is more expensive, Mikhail Kuznetsov, head of the executive committee of the Popular Front, pointed out.

— In our understanding, it should at least cost the same as any other. Ideally, less, because it would be a measure to encourage large families to use taxis," he told Izvestia. — Due to different circumstances, not all families can use public transport to get to the polyclinic or sports section.

What other problems of large families have not been solved

Starting this year, a priority procedure has been established for large families to provide assistance in the form of a social contract, experts recalled. However, according to their data, a significant part of families still face formal restrictions when receiving established support. Thus, 77% of parents cannot apply for allowances and benefits, mainly due to non-compliance with the criteria of need, which do not always reflect the real situation of the family, the Popular Front noted. According to experts, it is necessary to switch to the principle of receiving benefits based on the number of children, and not on the level of family income.

Experts also noted shortcomings in the work of the unified digital accounting platform for large families. For example, social security specialists from different regions cannot see each other's information, so it is not always possible to detect in time that the same people receive certificates of a large family in several regions at once.

"In addition, even if a family has an ID card, this does not mean that they will receive all the necessary support measures: a lot depends on having a residence permit in a certain region. This creates unequal conditions for large families from different regions," the experts noted.

They propose to give social protection specialists broader access to information in the system and develop uniform requirements for providing support to large families across the country.

For the majority of families, including those with many children, the purchase of housing remains unaffordable even on preferential mortgages, according to the monitoring results.

"The basic limits on family mortgages are 12 million rubles in Moscow, the Moscow Region, St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, and 6 million rubles in other regions of the Russian Federation, but, as a rule, a larger amount is needed to buy an apartment. In Moscow — about 30 million rubles," the experts said.

At a discounted rate, citizens will be able to take only the amount within the basic limit, and the rest of the funds will have to be paid at the market rate, at which the monthly payment can be more than 200 thousand rubles, they stressed.

The monitoring also revealed a number of orders that have not yet been executed, but the deadline has already arrived. Thus, social guarantees for heroic mothers, similar to Heroes of Labor, have not been established, and the tax deduction for lump-sum payments from employers to parent employees during the first year after the birth of a child has not been increased to 1 million rubles.

How to ensure comfortable trips for families in a taxi

The problems identified by the monitoring are really acute for large families, experts interviewed by Izvestia confirmed. Thus, the issue of transporting children in taxis is a long—standing stumbling block between the state policy of supporting families with children and the unwillingness of carriers to incur additional costs and obligations, said Valery Korneev, chairman of the Union of Users of Digital Platforms.

— Transportation of children without child seats or boosters up to a certain age is prohibited, and it is extremely problematic to guess in advance what age and height the child will travel. Parents don't always share this information either. And according to the rules, they have different chairs," he explained. — Having even one child safety seat in the trunk is a problem for a taxi driver, as it eats up space for possible passengers' luggage.

In addition, according to him, responsibility for a small passenger, as a rule, also does not please the driver.

— Moreover, parents can behave inappropriately, taking the child out of the chair if he gets naughty. And this is punishable by rubles for the driver. Not to mention the real possibility of getting a dirty interior after a child, you will have to spend time and money cleaning it," said Valery Korneev.

There are also problems with restrictions on boarding time in many places in Moscow, where cameras automatically fine taxis if they exceed it. However, when boarding a child's car, it is very easy to exceed it, the expert believes.

"So it turns out that the state wants benefits for passengers with children, but it obliges taxi drivers, who most often work 12-14 hours with one day off, to bear all possible costs for providing these benefits," he believes.

There should be no discrimination on price when traveling with children in a taxi, agrees Tatyana Butskaya, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family Protection, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood.

— The children's fare should remain as an internal one for drivers to understand, and prices for trips with and without a child should be the same, — she believes.

Also, according to her, preferences are needed for large families when traveling and traveling. At the same time, cars with a capacity of five to seven passengers should be used primarily when traveling from airports and train stations, where large families come on their way to rest.

— Separately, we are considering options for the rental of child car seats for taxi drivers at railway stations or airports, — she said.

What are families not provided with

Improving housing conditions remains a priority problem for large families, said Sergey Rybalchenko, head of the Public Chamber's Commission on Demography, protection of Family, children and traditional family Values, Director General of the Institute of Scientific and Public Expertise.

— In fact, large families have very limited opportunities to solve their housing problems. Mortgages, even preferential ones, are not available for most of them," he told Izvestia.

At the same time, the preferential rental of housing, which is available in some regions for families with one or two children, according to him, is not implemented for large families. But this measure is provided for in the federal project "Large family".

He also cited monitoring data from the Public Chamber, according to which large families have problems arranging children not only for extended periods, but also in clubs and sections of additional education.

— Accessibility of higher and secondary vocational education for children from large families also remains a problem. Despite the fact that this issue has been discussed for many years, there are no existing federal support mechanisms in this area," he added.

The President's instructions on measures to support large families are being implemented without relying on the principle of neediness in only 40 regions, Sergei Rybalchenko said.

— There are no uniform standards for the provision of school and sportswear, as well as standards for the provision of meals in educational institutions for children from large families. According to our monitoring data, the amount of funds allocated for the purchase of school clothes varies from region to region by six or more times," the expert noted.

The services of social nannies, which are also very much needed by parents with many children, are implemented in less than half of the regions, he added. According to him, restrictions on the maximum period of parental leave credited to the pension experience of a mother with many children have also not been implemented by law.

In addition, the availability of social contracts for starting a family business needs to be constantly monitored, Tatiana Butskaya added.