The "Council of Mothers" proposed to exclude maternity leave from the calculation of need

On March 23, Tatyana Butskaya, Chairman of the Council of Mothers, sent a proposal to adjust the list of incomes taken into account when assessing the need of families to receive state support to Anton Kotyakov, Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Russia.

"Maternity payments are lump-sum in nature and are aimed at compensating for lost earnings in a specific period. The amounts taken into account earlier continue to influence the calculation of the average per capita income of a family even after the end of the payment period, which does not reflect the real need of the family. We propose to exclude these payments from the calculation after the expiration of the period for which they were provided," the document quotes TASS.

According to the authors of the appeal, the current procedure leads to a distortion of the real level of family well-being: the money received during maternity leave and already spent continues to affect the average per capita income, although their actual impact on the current financial situation has long been exhausted. The Council of Mothers insists that such charges should be excluded from the calculation formula after the end of the period for which they were paid.

"In fact, such amounts cannot be used for the current consumption of the family, but their accounting artificially overestimates the level of well—being and may serve as grounds for refusing to provide social support measures," the appeal says.

Another initiative concerns funds that are held in nominal accounts of minors. Butskaya notes that children cannot manage this money until they reach adulthood, which means that the family has no right to spend it on current needs. Nevertheless, when assigning benefits, such amounts are taken into account, which often becomes a formal reason for refusal.

In addition, the Council of Mothers proposes to exclude parental compensation for kindergarten from the calculation base, as well as the salaries of mothers with many children working in government institutions. The document emphasizes that the latter measure will save staff in the social sphere and additionally support the institution of a large family.

Maternity maneuver: The Ministry of Health wants to change the rules of registration of sick leave for parents

What will this affect and what other issues need attention?

Starting from January 1, 2026, the non-taxable amount of financial assistance from an employer to an employee who has children has been set at 1 million rubles, Ekaterina Golubtsova, Candidate of Economics, Associate Professor of the Department of State and Municipal Finance at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, said on March 21.

On February 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to consolidate the right of large families to benefits if the average per capita income is slightly exceeded.

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