Translated material
Nutritional logic
Moscow will “adopt” children from single-parent families
The city authorities believe that the well-being of single-parent families can be improved with the help of the so-called alimony fund. The idea of creating such an institute, which, in essence, would act in the role of a parent who left the family, but did not shy away from financial support for children, was voiced yesterday by the head of the city’s social sector complex, Lyudmila Shvetsova. It is expected that a project for such a fund will be submitted to the city government for consideration in early December, as part of the Year of the Family in Moscow program.According to Ms. Shvetsova’s calculations, in terms of the number of malicious alimony defaulters, the financially prosperous capital is even somewhat ahead of Russia as a whole. In the city, the number of those who do not want to participate in the maintenance of their children per thousand residents is 4.3, while the national average is 4.2. With Europe, where this figure is on average 2.6, it is better for us not to be equal at all, says the head of the capital’s social sector complex. Until now, the fight against alimony payers was mainly carried out by single parents themselves, and the courts treated this problem rather inertly - in 2006, only 339 decisions were made to bring non-payers to administrative responsibility.
At the same time, the number of divorces in the city is constantly growing, as is the number of marriages. Compared to 2006, in ten months of this year the number of people wishing to formalize marriage relations increased by almost six thousand couples and amounted to more than 72 thousand. However, up to 60% of Moscow families, according to Lyudmila Shvetsova, break up due to everyday problems (3, 9%), infidelity (8%), having a second family (7%), alcoholism and drug addiction (13%). The most common justification for divorce, according to her, is the wording “they didn’t get along” (33%). “It is these disagreements between parents that affect the relationship with their children and are the reason for one of the parents’ refusal to participate in the child’s life,” Ms. Shvetsova believes.
In Moscow, according to her data, about 230 thousand children are being raised in broken families, and, according to officials, about half do not receive financial support from one of the parents. Therefore, initially the size of the alimony fund will probably be calculated based on 115 thousand recipients of assistance, each of whom should receive 500 rubles monthly. This minimum, according to Lyudmila Shvetsova, was calculated in her department based on the fact that this is the average amount of alimony payments in Moscow. In addition, since 2008 up to 500 rubles. State child support benefits will also increase.
However, the city authorities are not going to fully take on the obligations of separated parents. “We will collect these funds from negligent fathers,” said Ms. Shvetsova. Moreover, the financial interest of the authorities themselves in the sources of replenishment of the fund has already forced officials to think about measures to influence non-payers. According to the head of the city's social sphere complex, to intimidate irresponsible fathers, one can use the experience of Canada, which deprives unscrupulous child support workers of a driver's license, as well as hunting and fishing licenses.
City deputies from United Russia supported the idea of “returning the Soviet system of supporting children whose parents are hiding from financial responsibility, with the help of a special fund.” Moreover, the city authorities are preparing a package of documents with proposals to improve the efficiency of the alimony payment system. Chairman of the Moscow City Duma Vladimir Platonov stated this yesterday. In the meantime, “too liberal Russian legislation,” according to him, does not allow significant influence on defaulters.
As for this form of support for single and busy parents, such as the provision of kindergarten services, Lyudmila Shvetsova admitted that the capital’s authorities will be able to provide the required number of places in preschool institutions no earlier than 2010. So far, city officials have not been able to reduce the queue for public nanny services. “When the capital’s authorities just began to deal with the problem of kindergartens, and this was several years ago, the queue was 11 thousand people, now it reaches 22.5 thousand,” said the first deputy mayor.