Prime Minister Mishustin Revives Children’s Cash Back Program

Moscow, March 30 – The chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children’s Affairs Nina Ostanina (KPRF) appealed to the head of the government, Mikhail Mishustin, with a request to resume the children’s cash-back program, make it annual and provide significant funds for implementation, the News Agency has a copy of the appeal.

The appeal stated that “such an effective mechanism should be annual, providing for its implementation an amount exceeding the previous indications (taking into account the expected price increase)”.

Ostanina noted that no funds have been provided for the implementation of the program in 2023. At the same time, the parliamentarian notes, the State Duma Profile Committee receives many appeals from citizens on this matter. She noted that “the committee highly appreciates the effectiveness of this measure,” and that the deputies are convinced that this program “cannot be closed.”

Earlier, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR) also addressed Mishustin on this topic, calling for the resumption of the children’s cashback program for organizing children’s summer holidays and improving children’s health in 2023, as well as extending its implementation period.

The federation indicated that at the end of 2022 there was confidence that the issue of extending the children’s cash back program for 2023 would be resolved positively, but according to the Strategic Research Center on February 16, 2023, it is not planned to be extended. Cashback programs for children and tourists in 2023 due to the federal budget deficit and in view of the fact that the tourism industry is growing, restarting programs is possible only for certain categories of citizens – as a tool to support the poor, participants in the private military operation and their families.

On behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, since May 25, 2021, a children’s cashback program has been implemented for organizing children’s summer holidays and improving children’s health. The main goal of the program is to make children’s holidays in the country more affordable, to support those parents who do not have any benefits and, on a commercial basis, at their own expense, buy tickets for children’s camps. It ran until August 31, 2021 and is a huge hit with working parents. During this period, about 420,000 families with children used child leave compensation.