Translated material
Subsidy instinct
Moscow pensioners are excited about the change in the scheme for providing assistance from the budget
The next round of housing and communal reform, which involves changing the system of allocating subsidies to low-income Muscovites, seems likely to add headaches to elderly beneficiaries. The new procedure for providing subsidies , which came into force in January 2007, established by Moscow government decree No. 710 of September 19, 2006, limits the number of beneficiaries who will be able to use postal services to receive assistance from the city treasury. In addition, pensioners will have to be more careful about their expenses - for a two-month delay in paying utility bills, a defaulter may lose their subsidy altogether.The essence of the reform is that Muscovites who benefit from subsidies for housing and communal services will, starting this year, be able to independently cash out their personalized accounts opened for each beneficiary at OJSC Bank of Moscow. Previously, money by bank transfer was transferred directly to the service provider. And the townspeople who applied for the subsidy received bills with already “cut” amounts. Having received large utility bills from the EIRTs in January and hearing about the new procedure for receiving and using city subsidies, beneficiaries, and primarily pensioners, became worried, since the accounts were opened at the Bank of Moscow, and they were used to paying for utilities at the Sberbank cash desks. And at the beginning of the month, when city residents traditionally pay their rent, the branches of both banks had to withstand the onslaught of perplexed pensioners.
In one of the Sberbank branches, located in a residential area, a Vremya Novostey correspondent observed the agitation of old people: 75-year-old Taisiya Mikhailovna, frightened by an unusually large bill received in January, was calmed down by her neighbors one by one. “Now the amount is indicated in full, without deducting the subsidy,” explained the more knowledgeable pensioner Alla Vlasovna, “and the difference, the missing money, will go to your savings book along with your pension.” As the woman told our correspondent, she herself came for cash subsidies for the first time and immediately intends to pay for housing and communal services. “It’s so convenient for me, I’ll receive my pension on the fifth or sixth and the subsidy right away and pay right away,” she explained. However, there were not many conscious and informed people. Most pensioners tormented cashiers and neighbors with questions and complained about the inconvenience. Social worker Valentina, who cares for 15 elderly Muscovites who benefit from city subsidies, is skeptical about the new order. In her opinion, the innovation will cause “total anxiety” for older people. Some of her clients receive their pension not from Sberbank, but from the post office, and would like to use postal services to receive subsidies.
However, not all beneficiaries will be given this opportunity. Postmen will only bring the subsidy to disabled people of the first group, persons who have a certificate from a medical institution stating that they need outside care, as well as pensioners over 80 years of age. In general, as Sergei Serkov, press secretary of the State Center for Housing Subsidies (State Center for Housing Subsidies) explained to Vremya Novostei, this service is provided for those who “for health reasons are unable to open bank accounts and demand deposits or use them."
According to Mr. Serkov, more than 7 thousand Moscow pensioners applied for a postal delivery form. And the State Center for Housing and Housing believes that only 30 thousand out of almost 380 thousand families of elderly beneficiaries who have a subsidy will be able to count on the services of a postman. However, the capital branch of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Russian Post believes that there may be more applicants. “In January, 10 thousand subscribers received subsidies through the postman,” Galina Nechushkina, head of the public relations department of the Moscow Federal Postal Service, told Vremya Novostei, “but their number will grow every month. We expect a significant increase in the number of such clients.” At the same time, the agreement between the State Center for Housing and Housing and the post office has not yet been concluded; now, according to Sergei Serkov, an “active dialogue” is underway, the results of which will become known no earlier than the second quarter of this year. Therefore, the majority of beneficiaries will have to additionally contact the City Center for Housing Subsidies to choose a convenient way to cash out funds: continue to use accounts with Bank of Moscow OJSC or transfer subsidies to any other bank, as well as to a Muscovite social card (SCM).
Moreover, you need to decide quickly where to receive cash subsidies, since according to the new rules, in the event of a two-month delay in current payments for housing and communal services, the provision of city assistance may be suspended. And there is another month to pay off the debt or agree on the timing of its liquidation. “If documents confirming the events that entail a change in the amount of the subsidy are not provided to the district department of the State Center for Housing Life: a change in the place of permanent residence of family members, the basis of residence, citizenship, family composition (in the absence of a good reason), then the subsidy is frozen,” -- explained the press service of the City Center for Housing Subsidies. In addition, from now on, the right to assistance from the city treasury will have to be confirmed and the subsidy will have to be reissued every six months, rather than annually.
The unrest of pensioners in the Moscow City Duma is considered unnecessary. According to the chairman of the commission on social policy and labor relations of the city parliament, Mikhail Antontsev, in this way the capital’s government “took control over the payment of utility services.” “There were facts when even beneficiaries did not pay their share of utility bills,” he said. “The elderly and sick pay regularly, and this measure applies not to those who did not pay due to illness or other reasons, but to a greater extent to those who are accustomed to living for free.” The deputy is confident that the housing subsidy center will promptly deal with “valid reasons” for pensioners who have not paid their utility bills on time in a private manner.
The SCLC admits that “the process of transition to new rules for the assignment and use of subsidies is very difficult and requires mutual patience and understanding.” “To a large extent, this is a psychological process,” the center explained to a Vremya Novostei correspondent. “Even many middle-aged people had difficulty switching to the system of receiving wages through bank cards, so what do we want from elderly people?” GCHS employees hope to resolve all possible discrepancies with a “friendly attitude towards each other” and promise to intensify the reception of the population on weekdays and on weekends.