False child: how to receive maternity capital for non-existent children
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is going to amend the Family Code and the law "On Acts of Civil Status" in order to strengthen control over the confirmation of the fact of birth of a child outside a medical institution. The fact is that "home births" turned out to be a loophole for fraudsters who obtain birth certificates for non-existent children and then receive support measures: maternity capital and social payments. The Ministry of Internal Affairs said that last year employees revealed more than 700 such facts, and the scheme was used throughout the country. Such scams expose another problem: the child for the state can remain, in fact, invisible for a very long time. Read more - in the material "Izvestia".
Why change the Family Code
The head of the Main Department of economic security and anti-corruption of the Ministry of internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, police Lieutenant General Andrei Kurnosenko in an interview with TASS said in an interview about the need to adjust the current legislation because of the loopholes that allow the commission of crimes.
"For example, last year the officers of the department revealed a scheme of embezzlement of funds allocated within the framework of the national project "Demography" for maternity capital payments," he said. - Participants of the scheme submitted statements to the MFC that they witnessed the birth of children outside of maternity hospitals. The application was accompanied by passports and a handwritten statement of a fictitious woman in labor without providing documents confirming the fact of child birth. Based on the submitted documents, MFCs issued birth certificates for the children.
Moreover, most often the birth of twins was formalized in this way to increase the amount of matkapital and social payments, said Andrei Kurnosenko.
According to him, 708 facts of receiving social benefits and maternity capital funds for children who never existed have already been established. The swindlers acted in 59 subjects of the Russian Federation, 229 criminal cases were initiated, 217 people were prosecuted, and the preliminary damage to the budget of the Russian Federation was estimated at 1 billion rubles.
In this regard, the chief initiated work to amend the Family Code of the Russian Federation and the federal law "On Acts of Civil Status". "Strengthening control over the cases of confirmation of the birth of a child outside a medical institution will help to avoid embezzlement of budget funds," said Andrei Kurnosenko.
What kind of scheme we are talking about
Stories about fictitious births of children regularly hit the media. For example, in late November, a woman who thus formalized the "birth" of a second child was put in the dock in Omsk. Having presented a fictitious birth certificate, she received maternity benefits. The damage was estimated at 150 thousand rubles - she did not have time to take more, although she had already received a loan agreement for the construction of the same fake apartment building to cash in the matkapital. Her accomplice was a representative of a credit consumer cooperative.
In the same Omsk at the beginning of the year the sentence was passed on a 45-year-old woman who in 2021 presented a forged birth certificate for her second child and received illegal benefits and maternity capital. Having caused damage to the federal budget in the amount of 800 thousand rubles, she was sentenced conditionally for three years and 10 days with payment of damages.
In Khabarovsk, in early November, 21 people were sentenced at once: a pediatrician of a private clinic and 20 women. It turned out that the doctor issued fictitious certificates of birth of children at home to the residents of Tabor Ogly for a fee of Br10 thousand. Thus, the swindlers received birth certificates and then social benefits. The damage was significant - more than 18 million rubles. The pediatrician received six years of colony, the others - up to three and a half years.
Moreover, the attackers were "punctured" by physiology: the civil registry officers found that the same woman gave birth to children once every six months.
The biggest case was brought against lawyer Aram Bagiyan and his accomplices, which was solved by the Tatarstan police. The lawyer appeared as a witness to the birth of children at home in 59 regions of Russia. In Tatarstan alone, 13 fictitious children were "born" before his eyes.
Alexandra Marova, director of the Foundation for the Prevention of Social Orphanhood and an expert of the People's Front, explained to Izvestia that the basis for the state registration of the birth of a child during childbirth outside a medical organization and without medical assistance is the application of a person who was present during the birth. Such an application is submitted in writing to an employee of the civil registry office or MFC.
- In general, this is an adequate norm, since there are indeed many life situations when births occur unexpectedly outside maternity hospitals. But the possibilities of abuse also open up," she said.
Ekaterina Nozhenko, a lawyer of the European Legal Service, emphasizes that a birth certificate can be obtained even on the basis of a notarized statement of such a "witness" about the birth of a child by a woman.
And Yuri Mitin, managing partner of the law firm "Intellectual Protection", points out that the problem is typical not only for Russia, but also for other countries, where there are similar programs to support families.
Whether the approach to birth confirmation should be changed
The initiative to change the legislation (available to Izvestia) originally came from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Republic of Tatarstan, after which it was formalized and sent to federal agencies by the regional parliament, Irina Volynets, the republic's children's rights ombudsman, told Izvestia.
-The essence of the proposal is that if the birth took place at home, a medical worker must certify the birth of the child, " she said. - Many people misunderstood the essence of the initiative. I emphasize that we are not trying to ban home births. It's just that if earlier a witness was enough to register a child, now it is proposed to confirm the fact of birth by a doctor. He can immediately examine the child for possible health problems, if the parents agree to this.
Viktoria Chesnokova, lawyer, lawyer of BGP Litigation family law and inheritance planning practice, agrees that in the case of state registration of a child there should not be a formal approach.
- "It would not be superfluous to add to this norm that such an application should be accompanied by evidence that would help to verify the reliability of the information stated in the application," she told Izvestia. - For example, photographs of the area where the birth took place, with the possibility of verifying the date and time of the photo. Or evidence showing that the mother sought help from a medical organization after the birth.
Svetlana Stroganova, program director of the Children of Our Children Foundation, also noted that if a child is born, it should be recorded somewhere, including being examined by a medical worker. And the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family Protection, Paternity, Maternity and Childhood Tatyana Butskaya emphasized that now the system is "completely non-transparent".
- "There must absolutely be a medical confirmation of the birth of a child," she told Izvestia. - Regardless of whether the child was born in a hospital or home birth, the woman must come with the child to a medical institution or call a doctor, who must confirm the fact of birth.
Alexandra Marova emphasizes that it is important to strike a balance and not to complicate the lives of well-meaning mothers, who by chance gave birth outside of a medical organization, so that they "are not forced to run through the organs with a baby in their arms".
Lawyer Yuri Mitin noted that it is important to increase the level of interaction between various government agencies - civil registries, tax authorities, social security agencies - for more effective control over payments and registration of children.
Invisible children
The problem is also that the state may simply not see a child for a very long time, at least until school.
Tatyana Butskaya notes that at the regional level, such cases should be taken into account: if a child under a year does not visit a polyclinic, a pediatrician or the guardianship authorities could check what is happening to him or her. "It should not be the case that a child is born and we know nothing about him," the State Duma deputy emphasizes.
Ekaterina Nozhenko, lawyer of the European Legal Service, notes that formally the guardianship and custody authorities are responsible for identifying and registering citizens in need of guardianship or custody, as well as for checking the living conditions of minors.
-But in order for the guardianship and custody bodies to pay attention to the family, there must be information about violation of the rights of minors," she said.
A similar situation with medical personnel: they must conduct primary care of newborns no later than the third day after discharge from the obstetric hospital, but even here you need registration at the place of residence and information from the maternity ward. And local self-government bodies and the Department of Education must keep records of children who do not attend school, but those who live in the assigned territory.
-As a result, the disclosure of such cases occurs during inspections or randomly, so it makes sense to make changes that provide for the provision of a certificate of a medical worker on the examination of a newborn, - she summarized.
