The State Duma explained the new method for calculating benefits for pregnant students

The new method for calculating maternity benefits for student mothers is needed to calculate the amount of support more fairly, since students do not have the work experience to receive payments from the Social Fund, explained Svetlana Bessarab , a member of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy, and Veterans' Affairs. She told Lenta.ru about this.

"We proceed from the fact that by the very concept of a student we understand that the child has not yet worked. Immediately after school, a girl goes to study, and, naturally, she does not have any work experience to receive a Social Fund payment," Bessarab said.

She explained that payments are assigned depending on work experience, and in the case of students this simply cannot happen. Today, full-time female students receive maternity benefits depending on the size of the scholarship.

Among other support measures for young families, she named the imminent construction of family dormitories. Also, the national project "Family" included funds for the appropriate provision of student campuses and mother-and-child rooms in universities. In regions with low birth rates, other social guarantees are provided, such as rental housing for student families, an increased one-time payment at the birth of a child, and other support measures.

At the moment, Bessarab cannot name the amount that will be spent on benefits for student mothers and how many recipients of this support measure there may be today.

Earlier on Thursday, the Russian government developed amendments that propose changing the calculation scheme for maternity benefits for students. It is proposed to calculate the amount of the payment not from the amount of the scholarship, but from the subsistence minimum in the region. According to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin , the amount of assistance that a woman will be able to receive for 140 days of maternity leave will increase several times. According to him, on average, the payment will increase to 90 thousand rubles across the country.

In January, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered that maternity benefits for female students be increased to the subsistence minimum.