Russias government plans to increase state maternity payments by around $500 next year as the country struggles with a shrinking number of births, Labor Minister Anton Kotyakovsaid Monday.First-time mothers will receive a lump sum of 677,000 rubles ($7,000) starting in 2025, Kotyakov told a meeting of federal lawmakers, a modest increase from the current payment of 630,400 rubles.Likewise, women who give birth to a second child will receive 894,000 rubles ($9,300), up from the current payment of 833,000 rubles.Russias Labor Ministry expects more than 1 million people to receive maternity payments next year.
A draft budget currently under consideration in parliament would allocate 536.71 billion rubles ($5.57 billion) to the benefits program next year if passed.Some demography experts havecriticized Russias maternity benefits program, introduced in 2007, arguing that payments are too small to motivate women to have more than one child and that they fail to keep up with inflation.The program was set to end in 2026, but President Vladimir Putin extended it until 2030 during his re-election campaign earlier this year.