Subsistence minimum in the Stavropol Territory: consumer basket and administrative innovations

The subsistence minimum in the Stavropol Territory is set at the level of the All-Russian subject. The indicator reflects the average standard of living of citizens of the country. Depending on the size of the subsistence minimum, the amount of social payments to unprotected layers of the population is also set, the same amount is the basis for the development and implementation of social programs.

Consumer basket

The table of the subsistence minimum is a consumer basket that has a value estimate. So, the amount, sufficient to ensure life, varies depending on the region of Russia. The consumer basket, which operates now, was installed in 2013. Revision of the list of products and services is planned only in 2018.

Half of the cost of the consumer basket is food. Thus, Russian families spend most of their budget on food. The second group is designed for non-food items - clothes, footwear, haberdashery, underwear, medicines. The last, third, category includes the payment of services: transportation, utilities, cultural events and more.

Legislatively it is determined that for the normal existence of the average Russian, the following products are needed:

• bread;
• Vegetables (the main number of potatoes);
• fruit;
• Milk and dairy products;
• butter;
• sweets;
• meat;
• a fish.

Cultural development and recreation provides for one trip to the cinema or theater in a month.

Calculation by main demographic groups

Since the beginning of this year, the highest executive body of Stavropol has established new amounts of payments. The subsistence minimum in the Stavropol Territory is divided into two categories:

1. Calculated per capita. This amount is 8148 rubles.
2. Counted on a specific group of citizens. Residents of working age are assigned to pay in the amount of 8669 rubles. For citizens of retirement age, the amount is 6656 rubles. The child benefit is paid to parents at a rate of 8309 rubles.

The subsistence minimum in the Stavropol Territory affected the size of social support to the beneficiaries. It is decisive in establishing the following points:

• Determining the status of a low-income family;
• Grounds for obtaining state aid;
• The grounds for students to receive a monthly allowance for travel in urban modes of transport;
• Grounds for obtaining targeted assistance for housing and utilities;
• The grounds for receiving monthly payments to the child (the amount of payments depends on the income of the family for each member).

Administrative innovations

The government of the Stavropol Territory, together with the recalculation of social payments, introduced several more administrative innovations. So, the program of "one window" was organized by the Department of Labor and Social Protection of Population. The essence of the government program is to make the design of various benefits as accessible and simple as possible. That is, management can partially receive documents independently, but only with the consent of the person who applied. For example, it can be a certificate of income, payment of unemployment benefits, family composition. Reception of citizens is conducted in management, they are advised also in additional branches.

Not only the cost of living in the Stavropol Territory was on the agenda. The executive branch and organizations for the protection of workers 'and employers' rights signed an agreement implying payments to citizens who fully worked their time in due conditions and fulfilled the labor standard. The last sum is equal to 8828 rubles.

Pension payments

The subsistence minimum of a pensioner in the Stavropol Territory depends on the level of inflation in the country. The latter indicator also affects additional social payments for especially needy veterans. The cost of living in 2016 for a pensioner was six percent less than in the current year, which indicates positive progress. Almost all the deputies voted for the increase in the allowance for this amount. But the representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation did not agree with the decision and therefore left the votes with them.

This indicator is calculated from the following condition: the previous subsistence minimum is multiplied by the price growth factor. The latter follows from the forecast of socio-economic development of the country.

Additional payments to pensions in the amount of 1,684 rubles are paid from the federal budget by the Pension Fund, which allows to avoid unnecessary burden on the regional budget. The pensionable living wage in 2016 with surcharges was paid to ninety-one thousand citizens.

The government plans next year to increase the subsistence minimum of the pensioner to eight and a half thousand rubles. This proposal is inscribed in the plan for the next three years.