Strategic session on improving living standards
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Good afternoon, colleagues.
Today we will discuss one of the President’s priority goals – to improve the living standards of our citizens.
Fulfilling the social obligations to our people is our direct responsibility. This effort should not be influenced by any external threat or risk, including sanctions from unfriendly states.
We are working in several key areas in this effort – reducing poverty, providing targeted support to needy families with children, and increasing real salaries and incomes. We are also improving the wellbeing of our pensioners and other socially vulnerable citizens.
As the President noted, there should be no one that can barely make ends meet if they are employed. Therefore, the Government continues supporting the incomes of our citizens. Under the President’s instructions, we have raised the subsistence level twice in a special procedure – starting on June 1 last year and again the beginning of January of this year. The overall increase was over 13.5 percent. By doing this, we have maintained the real incomes of 15 million people.
We are also consistently increasing the minimum wage at a rate that is higher than inflation. It has increased since the start of this year and is now 16,242 roubles. Moreover, on January 1 of next year we will adjust it for inflation again on the President’s instruction, this time by 18.5 percent, which will raise the salaries of 4.8 million people. We are helping the regions bring the salaries of public sector employees in line with the President’s May executive orders. These employees work in many diverse areas, from healthcare and the social sphere to education, science and culture. Their salaries should be increased to the level determined by the President. We will continue this policy through this year, fully implementing the decisions envisaged in the President’s executive orders.
Another area is the programmes on reducing poverty in the regions of the Russian Federation. The majority of regions have such programmes. The local officials know better who needs assistance and how to provide it. In some cases it’s a social contract, in others retraining or upgrade courses. A flexible approach like this that considers the local specifics will allow the regions to meet their personnel needs more quickly.
The President emphasised that protection for maternity and childhood and support for families are indisputable values for each of us.
We continue to assist low-income families with children; there is an integral system for state support. The law on the unified monthly benefit in connection with the birth and upbringing of a child entered into force at the beginning of this year. Over 5 million children under 17 and 190,000 pregnant women, for whom this measure was designed, have used it.
We will continue improving the system of guarantees for our people through the social treasury to make sure they receive all of their support benefits on schedule and in full, and remotely, if they so wish, without excessive red tape and bureaucracy.
Colleagues,
I suggest discussing the objectives we need to fulfil in the near term for improving the living standards of our people.
