The financial expert spoke about the rules for using maternity capital.

A woman who holds a maternity capital certificate can manage the funds independently. It becomes especially relevant in situations of divorce or separation of parents. Alexey Lashko, a financial expert and head of the Assistance Group, told Izvestia about this on August 13.

"According to the current legislation of the Russian Federation, the holder of the maternity capital certificate has the exclusive right to independently make decisions on the allocation of funds. The consent of the other parent is not required for this. This rule applies regardless of the marital status of the parents — whether they are officially married, divorced, or living separately from each other," Lashko said.

According to the specialist, the mother can single-handedly direct the funds of the maternity capital to improve housing conditions, purchase ready-made housing, build or renovate a house, and repay a mortgage loan. The funds can also be used for children's education: to pay for kindergarten, school education, and higher education and additional educational programs. An important area is also the pension provision of the mother — the formation of the funded part of the pension.

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In addition, funds can be used for social support, including monthly payments for a second child (up to the age of three) and the purchase of goods for the social adaptation of children with disabilities.

However, as noted by Lashko, in exceptional cases, the right to manage the parent capital may pass to the father. This is possible if the mother is deprived of parental rights, has died, is recognized as missing, has abandoned the child, or has given written consent to the adoption of the child by third parties (except in cases of adoption by the stepfather). A man can also manage his capital if he independently adopts a child without the participation of his spouse.

On August 11, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced that the Russian government would reduce the time for reviewing an application for maternity capital to five days. He also added that the processing time for requests will be reduced to 12 days instead of 20 days. According to him, it is important that parents have more time for their children, rather than for paperwork.

Before that, on June 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that will simplify access to maternity capital and accelerate its payments through a digital platform.

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