The Russian government has allocated more than 930 million rubles for a new procedure for paying sick leave to care for children under the age of eight.

This was announced on Monday, July 12, by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin at a meeting with his deputies.

“From September 1, at the initiative of the president, sick leave payments for childcare up to eight years old will be paid in a new way.

The amount of payment will be 100% of the average earnings.

It will no longer depend on the length of service, as provided now, which is especially important for young mothers and fathers who have not yet had time to gain work experience, ”the head of the Cabinet explained.

Today, if the mother or father has less than five years of work experience, the amount of temporary disability benefit is 60% of the average earnings, but not more than 44,400 rubles per month.

If from five to eight years - 80%, but not more than 59,200 rubles, and if more than eight years - 100%, but not more than 74,001 rubles.

According to Mikhail Mishustin, the new measure to support families will not affect employers - the increased sick leave will be paid directly from the Social Insurance Fund.

Moreover, as the Prime Minister emphasized, the parents themselves will not have to draw up any additional documents.

All calculations will be carried out by the fund independently on the basis of sick leave data.

According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, the innovation will allow receiving increased payments to 1.5 million parents annually.

In general, the initiative will equalize the rights of long-working parents and those who have just started their labor activity.

Georgy Ostapkovich, Director of the Center for Market Research, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, NRU HSE, spoke about this in a conversation with RT.

“The government continues its line of social support for citizens.

This is especially important now, given the serious epidemic situation in the country.

Due to the new measure, parents will not lose income when they go to sick leave and will not be afraid of these losses, ”added Ostapkovich.

  • RIA News

  • © Alexander Galperin

In addition, the government has allocated 500 million rubles to reimburse business commissions in the fast payment system (FPS).

According to Mishustin, the funds will reduce the costs of small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as increase the interest of entrepreneurs in the new domestic service.

“Following the results of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, the President gave a number of instructions.

Among them - full compensation for small and medium-sized businesses of bank fees that enterprises will pay from July to December when citizens buy their goods and services using the fast payment system, ”the Prime Minister said.

Recall that the SBP was launched at the beginning of 2019 and allows customers of different banks to instantly transfer funds by phone number.

According to the National Payment Card System (NSPK), since the launch of the service until May 2021, Russians have transferred more than 2 trillion rubles through the SBP, and almost 25 million people have used the service in total.

Also, SBP allows you to pay for purchases using special QR codes.

According to the NSPK, in 2019 in this way the Russians made about 2 thousand payments in the amount of 2 million rubles.

In 2020, the number of relevant transactions reached 700 thousand, and the volume of purchases amounted to 4 billion rubles.

And from January to May 2021, citizens paid for goods and services using QR codes about a million times and spent 6 billion rubles.

  • RIA News

  • © Evgeny Biyatov

Accepting payments through the system is becoming a cheaper alternative for business compared to using acquiring - paying for goods or services with bank cards.

Natalia Milchakova, deputy head of the Alpari information and analytical center, told RT about this.

“If for small trade and service enterprises the commission for acquiring is 2% of the purchase amount, then in the SBP the commission is five times lower.

In addition, the UPS does not require the installation and maintenance of a large amount of machinery and equipment, ”the expert emphasized.

According to Milchakova, the fast payment system is especially in demand among individual entrepreneurs.

At the same time, enterprises of consumer services, beauty salons, as well as legal and consulting firms are most often connected to it.

“Business will welcome reimbursement by the state of the commissions paid. Accordingly, small and medium-sized enterprises will have additional funds for development, purchase of equipment and software necessary for their main economic activities. This, in turn, will help improve the quality of customer service, ”concluded the expert.