The unemployed in Russia will expand access to social contracts

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree according to which the income of a family member who was fired after March 1 and recognized as unemployed will not be taken into account when assessing family income for concluding a social contract.

As noted in the message on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers, the so-called social contract is a special agreement that is concluded between the social security authorities and a poor family (or a poor citizen).

“Thanks to the social contract, you can go through retraining, open your own business, develop a personal subsidiary plot, get a job, get support in a difficult life situation,” the message says.

At the same time, a social contract is concluded with citizens with an average per capita income in the family below the subsistence level. According to the current rules, the average per capita income of a family is calculated based on the income of all its members for the last three months. An exception is set for 2022: when calculating family income, the labor earnings of a person who lost his job after March 1 and was recognized as unemployed will not be taken into account. This will allow you to quickly support the family in the event that one of the parents has lost his job and is experiencing difficulties in finding employment.

Earlier, Mishustin called on ministers to quickly prepare a third package of anti-crisis measures against the backdrop of sanctions imposed against Russia due to its special military operation in Ukraine. The first anti-crisis package has already been approved by the parliament, and the second one was submitted to the State Duma last week.

Recall that on February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), and on February 24 he made an emergency appeal to the Russians and announced a special military operation in Donbass. In his speech, he stated that “circumstances require decisive action from Russia” and stressed that “Russia will not allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons.”

In response to Russia’s actions, Western countries (USA, Canada, European Union, Great Britain, Japan) announced new, tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation, including financial and economic ones.

Thus, in particular, Russian banks fell under the sanctions, including Sberbank, VTB, Novikombank, FC Otkritie and Sovcombank, and for a number of state-owned companies it was difficult to attract foreign capital.

Later, the EU countries and the United States agreed to disconnect Russian banks that fell under sanctions from the international system of interbank transactions and information exchange SWIFT. In addition, it was decided to freeze the assets of the Bank of Russia, which will create difficulties for its use of international reserves. EU countries also pledged to take steps to limit the sale of citizenship — the so-called “golden passports” that allow wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government to become citizens of EU states and gain access to their financial systems. In addition, the European Union, the United States, Canada and a number of other countries have closed the sky for Russian aircraft.

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