Developing Targeted Social Assistance in Russia

Abstract

This article assesses the potential for further developing targeted social assistance programs in Russia on the basis of need assessment. These programs are considered within the system of social assistance at the federal and regional level in terms of funding and coverage of the population. It is shown that at most a quarter of regional budget expenditures in this area could be refocused toward need assessment–based programs. The impediments to targeted social assistance programs in Russia are analyzed, and three changes that are necessary for their further development are proposed.

Keywords:

• social protection
• targeted social assistance
• need assessment

This article is the republished version of:

Developing Targeted Social Assistance in Russia

Notes

1. Federal Law No. 388, “On Amendments to Specific Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation in Order to Improve Social Assistance Based on the Principle of Targeting and the Application of Criteria of Need,” December 29, 2015.

2. This comes in the form of preferences while receiving government (municipal) services, light work, and so on, which have no expression of value in monetary terms and do not require budget expenditures.

3. Among social assistance programs for the elderly, in addition to those supporting retirees (which are by far the largest group), there are programs that recognize individual merits before the state and society, as well as a number of programs for persons exposed to radiation.

4. In accordance with the Russian government program, “Development of Education from 2013 to 2020.”

5. The category of conditional recipient refers to a person (sometimes a family) receiving social assistance benefits at the expense of the consolidated budget of the federal subjects of Russia on any grounds. If a citizen belongs to several categories, he or she is counted more than once. In other words, contingent recipients are not physical individuals, but are their “projection” onto the categories of the social assistance system.

6. The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE). The RLMS-HSE is conducted by the National Research University Higher School of Economics and ZAO Demoscope, headed by Polina Kozyreva and Mikhail Kosolapov together with the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, headed by Barry M. Popkin and the Institute of Sociology, RAS.

7. Independent Institute of Social Policies and the Fund for the Institute of Urban Economics of the World Bank.