Is maternity capital required when adopting a child in 2021?

Many parents complain about the lack of adequate government support for young families with children, but it exists. For quite some time now, our country has had a social program “Maternity Capital”. It allows a mother who has given birth to a second child to receive significant financial support. These funds can only be spent for good purposes. Does this government support apply to those families who decide to adopt a second child? How can this bonus be issued to those who gave happiness to an adopted child?

What is maternity capital?

According to the Federal Law “On additional measures of state support for families with children” dated December 29, 2006 N 256-FZ, maternity capital refers to financial support for families raising several children. At the same time, this type of assistance received the name “maternal” rather arbitrarily. After all, the right to such social security may also arise for a man acting as the sole adoptive parent. If the child’s father is widowed, this does not mean that he is deprived of the opportunity to receive this type of benefit. From 01/01/20, such support will be available to families with one child.

The amount of assistance is a strictly fixed amount, and a family can use it only once and only for certain purposes. It is important to remember that in order to receive maternity capital, a number of mandatory conditions must be met.

Find out more about maternity capital, its size and changes in 2021.

What does the law say about this?

To begin with, we should remember that, according to paragraph 1 of Art. 137 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, children who were adopted, as well as their offspring on the one hand, and adoptive parents and their relatives on the other, are equated by law in property and personal non-property rights to their relatives by origin.

In other words, maternity capital when adopting a child in 2021 is as accessible as when parents expect to receive it for their biological child.

In general, the following legislative documents will be useful to you:

• the above-mentioned No. 256-FZ, which talks about measures that should be taken by the state to help families with children. The word “additional” in the title of this act is used only because all regulations regarding benefits for families with children and single Russians are prescribed in the Federal Law “On State Benefits for Citizens with Children” dated May 19, 1995 N 81-FZ;
• Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 30, 2006 N 873 “On the procedure for issuing a state certificate for maternal (family) capital.” This document performs the following functions: defines the requirements according to which an application for benefits must be drawn up;
• contains a list of applications;
• describes a certificate confirming entitlement to benefits.

By 04/15/20, amendments will have to be made to the legislation on MK in order to legitimize the proposals of the President of the Russian Federation, which are contained in the Address to the Federal Assembly on 01/15/20.

At the regional level, there may be separate documents that determine the possibility of receiving additional assistance from local authorities to family capital.

How does the adoption procedure work?

Adoption is a social form of acquiring children and is regulated by the Family Code of the Russian Federation.
It establishes that adoption is a priority form of placement for children left without parental care. This procedure can be used by both married couples and single citizens. In the latter case, the suitability for adoption will be assessed more meticulously, since any baby requires a full-fledged family.

Who will not be given permission to adopt?

Cannot be adoptive parents:

• minors;
• spouses, if one of whom is declared incompetent or partially capable;
• persons deprived of parental rights by court or limited by court in parental rights;
• convicted;
• those in same-sex marriage (for foreigners);
• persons with an income below the subsistence level for a family, including the adoptee (with the exception of the adoption of stepsons and stepdaughters);
• persons who do not have a permanent place of residence, except for persons belonging to indigenous small-numbered peoples, subject to the adoption of a child from among the persons belonging to the same indigenous small-numbered peoples;
• persons removed from the duties of a guardian (trustee) for improper fulfillment of the duties assigned to him by law.
• former adoptive parents, if the adoption was canceled by the court due to their fault;
• persons who, for health reasons, are unable to adopt a child;
• persons who have not undergone training for guardianship and trusteeship authorities (there are exceptions).

Required documents

To initiate adoption, you must first contact the local branch of the guardianship authority with a corresponding application with a request to give an opinion on the possibility of becoming adoptive parents.
Among other things, you will need to collect a preliminary minimum package of documents:

• autobiography;
• a certificate from work about the position you hold and the salary you received for the last 12 months;
• certificate of other available income;
• certificate of no criminal record;
• a copy of the marriage certificate, if citizens wishing to adopt a child are married;
• a copy of the certificate of completion of training for persons wishing to adopt a child left without parental care into their family;
• if persons wishing to adopt a child belong to indigenous peoples, then they must provide documents confirming that these citizens lead a nomadic and (or) semi-nomadic lifestyle, issued by the local government body of the relevant municipal district.

The application and accompanying documents can be submitted in person, either through the MFC, or through the government services portal.

Before giving their opinion, the guardianship authorities conduct an examination of the living conditions of persons wishing to adopt a child, during which it is determined that there are no circumstances impeding the adoption of the child.

Download for viewing and printing:

Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 12, 2007 No. 862 (as amended on September 09, 2015) “On the Rules for allocating funds (part of the funds) of maternal (family) capital to improve housing conditions”

Who can receive this type of assistance?

The first thing you need to deal with is the question of who can become an applicant for benefits. The list of such persons is also specified in No. 256-FZ, Article 3:

1. Adoptive mothers and mothers of two children, if the last of them was born in 2007 and later (from 01.01.20 it will be possible to receive a certificate for MK even when adopting only one child).
2. Men who are the sole adoptive parents of the second and other subsequent children (from 01/01/20 and one) under 18 years of age. Provided that the court decision on the adoption of the last of the children came into force starting in 2007.

A woman cannot receive capital under the following conditions:

• if she died or died;
• was deprived of parental rights in relation to a child whose adoption or birth became the basis for obtaining a certificate.

In such a situation, this right passes to the father of the child in question.

There are, however, exceptions to this rule:

• a child whose birth/adoption became the basis for receiving assistance has received the status of a social orphan and remains under state guardianship;
• the widowed man is the stepfather of the child for whom it is planned to issue a certificate.

If the father is also declared dead or has died, then the children can take advantage of the benefit. At the same time, the law will necessarily distribute its shares equally among minor Russian applicants or among children who are already 18-23 years old and who are studying full-time.

Thus, it can be unambiguously said that parents have the right to receive benefits regardless of whether the child is adopted, natural, adult and already married, died in infancy or in adulthood.

Adoption in Russia

Adoption is a procedure as a result of which spouses or one citizen (citizen) become parents in a personal, social and legal sense for non-blood children. Adoption is only possible for children under 18 years of age. If the child is over 10 years old, then he expresses his consent/disagreement with adoption.

The family arrangement of children who are left without parental care involves two forms: adoption and guardianship. In the first case, a closer relationship is established between parents and adopted children. Children can bear the surname and patronymic of their parents. Also, children legally become heirs to their parents' property. In adoption, parents who intend to adopt are given priority over those who intend to obtain guardianship.

The importance and seriousness of this step is confirmed by the fact that the decision on the possibility of adoption is made by the court, and not on the basis of the parents’ application. Since children after the adoption procedure are equated to relatives (blood), they have the right to all forms of state support. These can be subsidies, benefits, payments from various budgets: federal, regional and local.

Conditions that must be met to receive capital

In order for maternity capital to be received for an adopted child, several conditions must be met:

• both the adoptive parent and the child who acquires his new family must be citizens of the Russian Federation. In this case, the place of residence of neither one nor the other does not matter;
• the family must have the number of children established by law - that is, at the birth or in our case the adoption of a child who will be the second or third (from 01.01.20 may also be the first);
• the procedure for adopting a baby was carried out between July 1, 2007 and December 31, 2026.
• Accordingly, the baby’s date of birth should not be earlier than July 2007.

It is important to remember that the benefit is paid only once. If it has already been received previously for another child, then the family can only rely on the help provided by regional authorities. But here it should be taken into account that in each individual region of the Russian Federation, legislation on this issue may differ significantly.

Maternity capital is not subject to taxes.

If twins or twins find their new family at once, it will not be possible to receive two benefits. And in this case it will be paid only once.

When you can't get help

Much to the chagrin of many parents, there is a whole list of cases when child support is not provided for by law. The list of them can be presented as follows:

• if maternity capital has already been paid;
• if the baby became a member of the family before July 2007;
• when the adoptive parent was deprived of parental rights;
• if one of the parties to the process does not have Russian citizenship;
• if the decision to adopt a small Russian citizen was canceled.

Please note that the deprivation of parental rights does not affect capital that has already been spent on the child.

At the same time, few people know that the family does not have to use the certificate immediately after adopting the baby. This can be done in ten years, the main thing is that the conditions for their intended purpose are met.

How can you use capital?

As of 2021, law 256-FZ in Art. 7 sets out 5 possible options for disposing of maternity capital funds, which equally apply to adoptive parents.

Among them are the following methods:

• purchasing a house, apartment, isolated room or reconstructing existing housing in order to improve the living conditions of the family and, first of all, minor children;
• payment for any of the children’s education (for this an agreement must be concluded with an educational organization that has a license and accreditation);
• Mom's pension savings;
• goods for disabled children necessary for their social adaptation;
• receiving a monthly payment, if the right to such follows from the separate law “On monthly payments to families with children”;
• for the rehabilitation and treatment of disabled children.

Reference! The law allows for the combination of several methods by dividing the total amount into parts. For example, an adoptive mother can use part of the funds for her pension savings, and the other part for home renovations.

Where to apply

The most important question that large families have to figure out is where to go to apply for the benefits they are entitled to. In fact, everything looks quite simple. This benefit is administered by the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation. It is to his department that you must submit the appropriate application and a package of necessary papers. You should be prepared for the fact that it will be quite impressive. This is due to the fact that the state has always closely monitored the provision of this particular category of assistance.

More recently, parents who have the legal right to apply for benefits have the opportunity to contact the MFC on this issue. But through these centers you can only sign up for the electronic queue strictly on a specific day and time to submit documents.

How can an adoptive parent apply for maternity capital?

As it turned out, maternity capital can be received not only by natural parents, but also by adoptive parents. The procedure for obtaining a certificate is much simpler than for adoption, and takes place in 3 stages:

• submitting an application and package of documents;
• consideration of the request by employees of the Pension Fund;
• issuance of a certificate to the applicant.

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There are two ways to apply: in person and online. If you come to the appointment in person, then documents are submitted upon your first visit. During the second one you will be awarded a certificate. And those who submit an application electronically will only have to come to the appointment once.

Procedure for receiving assistance

Only after you have studied all the conditions and requirements and come to the conclusion that your family falls into the category of citizens who have the right to count on state assistance, can you proceed directly to the procedure for obtaining it. But here you will have to go through several stages.

Preparing documents

A certificate confirms the right of the adoptive parent to register maternity capital. To receive it, you will have to prepare the following package of papers:

• statement. The form can be obtained directly from the Pension Fund;
• passport of the adoptive parent, which indicates registration, registration and his personal data;
• a photocopy of this document, which will have to be certified by a notary;
• court decision on the adoption of a child;
• certificate of compulsory pension insurance along with a photocopy;
• certificate of deprivation of parental rights of the mother or her death, if the applicant is the father;
• Marriage certificate;
• birth certificates of all existing children.

It is important to note that in order to submit documents, you will first have to wait until the legal parent assumes his rights as an adoptive parent and registers with the registry office after receiving a court decision. Do not forget that in each specific case some additional documents may be needed.

How long does it take to review?

Considering the huge number of applicants and the fairly significant amount of benefits, it is no secret that each applicant is checked by the Pension Fund in the most thorough manner.

After you submit a request for financial support from the state, your documents will be sent for verification. This process takes about 1 month, after which a decision will be made. If it turns out to be positive, then the certificate will be issued to the owner within 5 days after the decision is made.

You can get a refusal if there are no other grounds for several reasons:

• incomplete package of documents;
• false information;
• incorrectly completed application;
• the applicant himself has limited rights.

In order not to delay the process, make sure that you fully comply with the requirements and that the preliminary documentary preparation has been carried out in full.

Procedure for issuing a certificate

The step-by-step process of obtaining a certificate can be represented as follows:

1. You wait for the court's decision on adoption and register it with the registry office.
2. You collect the necessary package of documents and write an application to the Pension Fund.
3. Submit your documents and wait for a response.

At the time of application, the Pension Fund employee must check all your papers, make copies of them and return the originals to you. When the decision is made, you will be notified that you must appear at the authority to receive a certificate. You will need to have your passport with you.

At the final stage, you will have to make a decision as to where exactly the funds received will go. But they can be disposed of only 3 years after the date of adoption of the baby.

The only exception is the payment of a mortgage: in this case, the state strictly controls that ownership is distributed among all family members, including children.

Documents and applications are submitted through:

1. Russian Pension Fund. The mother or, in some cases, the father, can come with documents to the branch of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation located at the place of residence. The employee will accept copies of papers and help fill out the applicant form.
2. MFC, multifunctional. They are only intermediaries and perform the function of receiving applications and processing documents. All subsequent stages take place in the PF. After considering the candidacy of an applicant for maternity capital, all documents are prepared and the applicant is entered into the database. The certificate itself is forwarded to the MFC, from where it is issued.
3. Government services (gosuslugi.ru). The portal was created for the electronic method of submitting documents. Using specially created functions, you can send an electronic application and apply to the Pension Fund for a certificate.
4. Official website of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (pfrf.ru). There you can also leave a request for maternity capital and choose a time of visit that is convenient for you.

The registration procedure is similar for blood and adoptive parents. Only the adoption certificate is added to the package of documents.

Benefit amount

The initial amount of maternity capital, when the program for its provision was just developed and implemented, was provided in the amount of 250 thousand rubles. Today, the amount of payment has increased significantly thanks to the annual indexation carried out by the Russian government. For clarity, we present the data in the table:

In the current year 2021, the basic amount of maternity capital is 466,617 rubles. With rising inflation, there is a possibility that this figure may rise further. For the second or subsequent child, the MK amount will be increased by another 150 thousand rubles.

Is there a benefit for the adoption of a second child?

Large families, of course, are most interested in whether maternity capital is provided when adopting a second child. And here it is very important to remember that such applicants are entitled to receive this assistance from the state. But only on the condition that they had not previously received a certificate for maternity capital.

With the birth or adoption of each subsequent child, they can also apply for benefits, but at the regional level. Assistance from the state is issued only once.

Post-trial registration

If the court makes an affirmative decision, you must contact the registry office. Specialists will add new data to the minor’s birth certificate. But if the court issues a ruling that the adopted child’s relationship with the biological parents is preserved (both personal and property), then the information will not be entered.

The new legal representative of the child must personally pick up the minor from the orphanage (boarding school), having with him a passport and a court decision.

How can you use the funds received?

Being carried away by the process of obtaining a certificate, many people forget that:

• firstly, assistance will only be given in cash in some cases;
• secondly, they can only be spent on purposes strictly defined by law.

It is for this reason that, at the initial stage, parents must decide what exactly they want to pay with maternity capital. It is especially important to do this in light of the fact that the process is not limited to obtaining a certificate. After the right to payment has been confirmed, you need to prepare a package of documents based on the intended purpose of spending the funds and write an application to the Pension Fund, which will now consider the feasibility and legality of transferring money for the purposes that you intend to implement.

Few people know that the allocated money can be used in several directions at once. At the same time, the Pension Fund must notify you no later than September 1 of each year how much money is still available in your account.

Find out in more detail what purposes you can spend your maternity capital on.

Pension provision

One way to spend maternity capital is to create a funded pension for the mother. This option will ensure financial security for a woman with many children in the future. This is especially important for those who spend a lot of time on maternity leave, which is guaranteed to reduce their qualifications and chances of finding a job in their profession in the future.

Please note that this type of use of funds is the only one that allows a woman to change her mind and change the intended purpose of the payment to something else. For example, for a mortgage or providing education for a child.

Find out in more detail about the possibility of using maternity capital to form a mother’s pension.

Housing

Most often, large families spend assistance from the state on the purchase of housing. After all, the appearance of another family member means that there will now be less space, and therefore it is necessary to expand. In this case, money can be directed to:

• purchase or construction of housing through non-cash transfer of funds to the account of the developer or bank in which the mortgage agreement will be issued;
• independent construction of a house (in this case, the Pension Fund transfers the money to the account of the certificate holder);
• reconstruction of an existing residential premises.

As for the mortgage, financial assistance can be used both to pay the down payment and to pay interest on the loan.

Getting an education

You can use assistance from the state for the purpose of obtaining education in full, but you can only partially. At the same time, there is an opportunity to spend funds on:

• payment for the provision of educational services of any educational institution that has accreditation;
• to pay related expenses: accommodation during study, food, as well as child care for preschoolers.

However, the law does not oblige certificate holders to spend money on the education of one specific child or on all of them equally. This suggests that funds can be used not only in relation to the child for whom they were received.

Find out more about how to pay for your studies with maternity capital in 2021.

Daily expenses

If you were expecting to receive assistance in order to spend it on daily needs, then you should know that such a purpose for paying benefits is not provided for by law: you will have to cover all your current expenses yourself.

This position of the state is determined by the desire to give the family the opportunity to pay for some serious event that it simply cannot provide with finances on its own. So to speak, make a capital investment in your well-being. For this reason, you will initially have to take care of choosing one of the three previous options.

How are payments made?

Payments under the certificate are also made on an application basis.
In addition to the application for the transfer of family capital funds to the seller, bank, developer, etc., you must also provide the relevant documents. Among which may be:

• mortgage loan agreement;
• purchase and sale of old or new housing (houses, apartments, parts of a house, shares in an apartment);
• agreement of participation in shared construction, housing cooperative;
• contract for the construction of a new residential building;
• contract for the reconstruction of a home;
• permits for construction, reconstruction;
• extracts from the Unified State Register for the reconstructed facility;
• title documents for the land plot being developed;
• a written obligation to transfer the property to the common shared ownership of all family members within six months from the date of completion of construction work or reconstruction;
• an agreement on the provision of paid educational services to a child,
• medical recommendations for the acquisition of means of social adaptation, rehabilitation of disabled children, an individual rehabilitation program for a disabled person, preliminary purchase and sale agreements for such means;
• documentary confirmation of the fact of purchase of goods, services for social adaptation, integration into society of a disabled child with the possibility of compensation for such costs.

Procedure for transferring funds

All payments are made by bank transfer.
Money is transferred to the bank account of an organization, company, or individual in the amount necessary to repay part and 100% of the buyer’s (acquirer’s) material obligations. This happens after the Pension Fund has approved the submitted package of documents. Pension Fund employees conduct a fairly thorough check of documentation and take measures to establish their authenticity.

Usually the verification procedure lasts at least 1 month. But if there is a need for detailed clarification of questionable or large-volume data, an extension of this period is allowed.

Important! The Pension Fund of Russia notifies the applicant in writing of the approval or disapproval of the application for transfer of funds.

The received refusal can be appealed in court.

Liability of applicants

Within a year from the date of conclusion of the transaction, it can be challenged by any interested parties, as well as law enforcement agencies or the Pension Fund itself if:

• detection of forgery during subsequent checks;
• falsification of documents;
• other deception on the part of the applicant.

In addition, when fraudulent schemes are detected, this fact is reported to the authorized law enforcement agencies. Where is the issue of initiating a criminal case decided?

What you need to know when registering paternity for stepchildren

The current legislation of the Russian Federation does not make it possible to receive funds when it comes to fathers adopting their stepchildren. At its core, this is a violation of the rights of the adoptive parent and his interests.

Firstly, the procedure for adopting such children is complicated by the fact that the previous spouse (the child’s biological father) may not give consent. The court will certainly take this into account, especially if the mother’s former partner paid child support in good faith. In this case, the stepfather will continue to remain a stepfather, which means that no grounds for providing maternity capital will appear.

It will be much easier to formalize paternity if the ex-spouse did not fulfill his duties. In this case, the court may not pay attention to its existence at all. However, such a family does not acquire the right to receive state payments, since it is considered that the child is already growing up in the family. In addition, the law on this matter states that when the right to receive financial assistance arises, children born from a previous marriage and adopted into the father’s new family are not taken into account.

This requirement can be circumvented provided that the parents have not formalized their marriage. In this case, the father, who already has a child from a previous marriage, and who will also adopt the child of his common-law spouse, will remain only in the role of an adoptive father, but not a stepfather. In other words, this child will not be his stepson.

The same restrictions apply to parents who are guardians. In this case, registration of maternity capital is also not possible. In short, before you go to exercise your right to own a certificate, you should carefully study all the intricacies of the legislation on this issue.

Procedure for obtaining a certificate

If the right to receive an MK certificate arises, which is now issued not only on paper, but also in the form of an electronic document, adoptive parents must contact the authorized body. According to the law, this is the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation represented by its territorial bodies (at the place of permanent registration of the person entitled to the capital, or at the actual place of his residence).

The following methods of contact have been established:

• directly to the Pension Fund (its client services);
• through multifunctional centers;
• by mail (it is recommended to do this by registered mail with notification and a list of the attachments);
• in electronic form through your personal account on the portal of state and municipal services in electronic form.

The registration procedure consists of the following stages:

1. Collection of the necessary package of documents.
2. Filling out the application in the prescribed form.
3. Submitting an application with attachments to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation by any of the above methods.
4. Review by the Pension Fund of the submitted papers, during which the authenticity of the submitted documents can be verified.
5. Making a decision on the submitted application within a period not exceeding 15 days from the date of registration of the incoming application by the fund.
6. Sending a notification of approval or refusal of the application to the applicant within 5 days from the date of the relevant decision.
7. Issuance of a certificate (the form of issuance depends on the method of application).

Attention! The application form is approved by Appendix No. 1 to the Administrative Regulations, approved by Resolution of the Board of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation dated May 31, 2019 No. 312p. The list of required documents is specified in clause 5 of the Application Rules, approved by Order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development dated October 18, 2011 No. 1180n.