Current social policy is focused on supporting families, motherhood and childhood and mitigating vital demographic problems in the country. The conducted analysis reveals that in Russia money allocation is the main form of social support of families with children, primarily through benefits, monthly payments, compensation, financial aid, etc. However, it is fragmentary: financial support is mainly aimed at stimulating the birth of a child, but not at supporting a child in the process of education and development. Despite the fact that since 2007 there have been positive shifts in this sphere the effectiveness of existing programs has been low; besides, there has been a gradual reduction in the share of expenditure on social obligations regarding the protection and support of families and children. Lump-sum payment for child birth and maternity capital are short-term and unable to eliminate child poverty (even the appearance of the first child in the family increases the risk of poverty and a number of children involve it in the majority of cases). Also the situation is aggravated by the unstable economic situation in the country, which reduces the quality of life of the population, especially the most vulnerable – children, large families, poor families with children. Therefore, it is necessary to provide for the following areas of improvement of social support of families with children: introduction of social package for families with children (food parcels, purchase of clothing and footwear, durable goods, etc.), targeted support on the basis of means-testing, raising the efficiency of social sector services provided to the population, increasing the level of information support in decision making (conducting panel research, encouraging the practice of sample surveys of the population), active involvement of socially oriented non-profit organizations, development of projects aimed at supporting families with children through the system of tax deductions, extension of the maternity capital program after 2016, solution of the problem of providing toddlers with places in kindergartens, raising the awareness of families with children about their legal rights
Keywords
social policy, forms of social support, families with children, poverty among families with children