Igor Pozdnyakov, director of the consumer rights protection department at Roskachestvo, the Russian Quality System, said families in some Russian regions can use regional maternity capital payments to buy a car, though the option is not available under the federal maternity capital program.
Speaking to the broadcaster RT, Pozdnyakov said federal maternity capital cannot be spent on a vehicle because current legislation sets out a fixed list of approved uses for the money, and buying a car is not on that list.
How regional maternity capital differs
Regional authorities, however, have the power to set their own additional payments for families with children and decide how that money can be spent, Pozdnyakov said. In a number of Russian regions, funds from regional family capital programs can be used to buy a car, a right written into local regulations, he said.
Maternity capital is a federal support program introduced in 2007 that provides a one-time payment to families after the birth or adoption of a child. The money can typically be spent on housing, a child's education or a parent's pension savings, but the list of approved federal uses does not include buying a car. Many Russian regions run their own parallel family capital programs on top of the federal scheme, each with its own rules on eligibility and spending.
Unlike the federal program, which applies uniformly across the country, regional maternity capital schemes are funded and administered separately by each region's government, meaning both the size of the payment and the list of approved uses can vary widely from one region to the next.
Conditions and payouts vary by region
Pozdnyakov said the terms of this regional support differ significantly from one region to another. He added that regional payments generally do not cover the full cost of a car, so families would still need to put in their own money to complete the purchase.
He advised families to check whether such a benefit exists in their region by consulting the official websites of regional governments, the state services portal for their specific region, or local social protection agencies.
Roskachestvo, the organization Pozdnyakov represents, is Russia's state-run consumer quality watchdog, which monitors product standards and consumer rights across the country.
The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, has previously called for increasing maternity capital payments using profits from banks with state participation.
