The Accounts Chamber, in addition, draws attention to the fact that the indicators set by the program “do not fully reflect the actual situation” for improving the living conditions of young families. At the moment, the indicator of the effectiveness of the program “Provision of affordable and comfortable housing and utilities for citizens of the Russian Federation” is the number of families who received payments and the proportion of young families from the total number of those in need as of January 1, 2015.
Who can apply for participation in the program of social benefits to young families
Young families in need of better housing conditions can claim for social benefits for the purchase of housing or repayment of a mortgage. Support does not imply free provision of an apartment – the state pays only part of its cost. To be eligible for this subsidy, a family must be recognized as needing better housing, but not poor. Each region has its own rules for determining the need to improve housing conditions.
Young families can participate in the program. A young family is considered a family in which both spouses are under the age of 35 (inclusive) and are in a registered marriage. The size of the payment ranges from 30 to 50% of the cost of housing, depending on the composition of the family, that is, the number of children.
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What is the reason for the long wait for payments
According to the estimates of the Accounts Chamber, about 10% of municipalities cannot participate in the program every year due to the lack of their own funds in the budgets. This could lead to the risk of not meeting the targets, the report says.
The ratio of the declared needs of the regions and the volume of subsidies provided from the federal budget has been decreasing every year since 2018, the report says. If in 2018 22 entities received “full” subsidies (out of 77 declared), then in 2019 and 2020 – only five (out of 83). The rest of the regions received subsidies ranging from 5 to 90% of the declared need.
The report also emphasizes that the current formula for calculating subsidies does not allow calculating the amount of funds required “to eliminate the accumulated queue” from young families. Now, when calculating the subsidy, the average market value of housing in the region, the maximum level of co-financing and the number of young families included in the consolidated list are taken into account.
“The applied formula for calculating the size of the subsidy does not take into account the total number of young families waiting in line to improve their housing conditions in the whole of the Russian Federation and in a separate region,” the Accounts Chamber points out. Thus, the number of final recipients is not taken into account in full.
What measures is proposed by the Accounts Chamber
According to the results of the study, the Accounts Chamber plans to send its proposals to the government, including an instruction from the Ministry of Construction to supplement the formula for calculating subsidies with an indicator that reflects the total number of young families, taking into account the queue.
In November, Human Rights Ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova offered to increase the age limit for those who are in line for housing under the state program to improve the living conditions of young families. She noted that the program “does not achieve the goal that was conceived by the authors for many, many young families who are on the waiting list,” and called being excluded from the queue due to reaching the age limit “a reputational cost of the state.”
RBC sent a request to the Ministry of Construction.
It is also necessary to develop a mechanism to control the registration of housing in the common property of all members of a young family, the report of the Accounts Chamber emphasizes. Under the terms of the program, housing purchased with the help of a subsidy must be registered for all family members, but the state authorities are not vested with control powers. In addition, responsibility for failure to fulfill this obligation has not been established, the Accounts Chamber points out.
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