Who, according to the law, pays maternity benefits - the employer or the state?

The legislation of the Russian Federation guarantees every woman maternity leave or maternity leave to restore her ability to work after pregnancy and childbirth, as well as to raise a young child.
Officially, maternity leave is issued as a sick leave during a period of incapacity and is paid by the employer in one hundred percent amount or by the social insurance fund as a benefit for state social insurance of citizens of the Russian Federation. Maternity leave is issued for the prenatal period for 70 or 84 calendar days and 70,86 or 110 calendar days postpartum. In total, on average, maternity leave ranges from 140 to 19 calendar days. Duration of maternity payments by law According to Article 15 of the Law of the Russian Federation No. 255 213-FZ of December 29, 2006, the period for assigning maternity benefits is made within ten calendar days from the date of filing the application, which is supported by a package of necessary documents.

One-time maternity payments are given to women who:

• Those working with official employment.
• Students in higher, vocational and secondary educational institutions.
• Those who were subject to staff reduction or subsequent liquidation of the enterprise were left without a job.

The benefit is paid depending on the social status of the recipient. Payments are made from the budget of the educational institution, by enterprises from the Social Insurance Fund (SIF) or by the Departments of Social Protection of the Population.

In order to be able to submit documents for the appointment and payment of benefits as early as possible, a woman must contact her gynecologist in advance to register her for pregnancy. It is also worth considering that if registered before the 12th week of pregnancy, the woman will receive additional payments from the state. In this case, the timing of payments will not depend on the timing of the provision of medical documents that will be needed to obtain benefits.

The gynecologist determines the approximate date of birth, on the basis of which maternity leave will then be issued upon reaching the 13th week of pregnancy. Then the procedure for issuing a sick leave certificate is carried out, which records the start and end date of the vacation. On the basis of which the appointment and then payment of benefits will be made.

The woman submits a certificate of incapacity for work to the human resources department of the employer. The management of the enterprise, based on the sick leave received from the employee, issues an appropriate order, which affects the immediate timing of calculation and issuance of benefits. The employee is obliged to provide the employer, in addition to the certificate of incapacity for work, with a statement written by her.

Although not all employers require such a statement, it is worth playing it safe and submitting it along with other documents to avoid problems.

Deadline for paying maternity benefits by law

According to the laws of the Russian Federation, the deadline for assigning benefit payments in connection with going on maternity leave occurs within ten days from the date of application and submission of a package of all necessary documents.

At the enterprise, after submitting an application and providing a certificate of incapacity for work, indicating the start and end dates of maternity leave, the amount of a one-time maternity payment is calculated. The calculation is made taking into account the employee’s daily salary during the last 6 or 12 months of work. The total amount of payment depends on the billing period at the company from which she goes on maternity leave.

The billing period is the total time that the employee worked at the enterprise, during which payments to the Social Insurance Fund, various taxes and contributions were made. Accordingly, the longer the period of work of this employee at one enterprise, or the continuous length of service, the greater the amount of maternity pay.

Receiving maternity leave by father

The father of the child can receive maternity benefits in the part related to the postpartum period:

• one-time at birth;
• for child care up to 1.5 years.

In order to receive maternity leave and the required benefits, the father additionally provides documents confirming the refusal of the child’s mother to go on leave:

• an extract from the order from the mother’s place of work that she is not on maternity leave;
• a certificate from the mother’s place of work that she was not accrued or paid benefits.

If the child’s mother does not work, then instead of documents from the place of work, you must provide:

• a certificate from the Employment Center about the status of unemployed or that she is not registered;
• a certificate from the Social Security authorities that she does not receive child benefits.

Documents required for registration of maternity and child care leave

Package of documents required for a woman (maternity leave):

• Of course, the first and most important thing is the certificate of incapacity for work issued by the gynecologist from the antenatal clinic where you are registered. It must indicate the date of the expected birth; it is from this that the beginning and end of maternity leave is calculated.
• A statement drawn up by a maternity leaver addressed to the employer stating that you will be absent from the workplace, for what reason and for how long. The time and reason are indicated on the basis of the certificate of incapacity for work.
• Certificate of income that was accrued to the maternity leaver over the last 6 or 12 months.
• Identification documents of the maternity leaver and their copies.
• Bank details of the card or account to which maternity payments will be credited.
• After the birth of the child, you will need to continue the registration procedure to receive child care benefits, for this you will need the following documents: Another application addressed to the employer, this time the reason is child care.
• Bank details are provided again.
• Documents that certify the identity of the person applying for the benefit.
• Copies and originals of the child’s birth certificate/certificates.

Calculation rules and dimensions

The level of maternity payments depends on the length of service and labor income of the last two years. The amount of maternity benefit is calculated by multiplying vacation days by average daily earnings.

It is defined as follows: from the sum of the average monthly wages of the expectant mother for the two years worked prior to going on leave, all periods of incapacity for work are excluded, and this also includes past maternity leave. Next, the resulting number is divided by 730 days (or 731 if one year is a leap year).

If a woman worked in two places, then her wages at both enterprises are added up when calculating. If she also continues to work in two teams, then the benefit is paid in one of the employee’s choice.

If the resulting average salary is less than the minimum wage or the work experience is no more than 6 months, all calculations will be made based on the minimum wage rate (in 2021 it is equal to
11,280 rubles ).
In order to calculate how much you can count on as a monthly child care benefit , the average daily income must be multiplied by 30.4 (average number of days in a month) and the percentage of income (0.4).

Registration of maternity leave for an employee by the employer

According to the law of the Russian Federation, an employer does not have the right to refuse a woman to provide her with maternity leave and child care leave, otherwise he will break the law. The employer is also obliged to provide maternity leave to women who have adopted a child under the age of one and a half years.

Documents required for an employer to register maternity leave for his employee:

• Application from an employee for maternity leave and child care leave.
• Sick leave from Deretnitsa, which indicates the beginning and end of the vacation.
• Certificate 182n from an employee from her previous place of work, if she worked at your company for less than six months before going on maternity leave.
• Certificate confirming that the maternity leaver has not received other maternity benefits. To avoid double payment of benefits to a maternity leaver from the Social Insurance Fund.
• For the Social Insurance Fund, you will need to fill out form 4-FSS, special attention must be paid to filling out lines 3.5 and 15, which indicate the start date of the maternity leave you are providing and the amount of payment calculated by your accountant.

The amount of a one-time maternity benefit, which is calculated by an accountant, is not subject to taxes such as personal income tax, contributions to the Social Insurance Fund and the Pension Fund.

Which reports should mention the fact of issuing maternity benefits to an employee:

• A quarterly report to the Social Insurance Fund, which records the provision of leave for temporary disability.
• A report submitted to the Federal Tax Service, which indicates the dates of the actual receipt by the maternity leaver of the agreed upon amount of a one-time payment from the enterprise.
• Monthly report to the pension fund. It must indicate information about social contributions; the report indicates that your employee is currently on leave due to temporary disability or child care.

All maternity payments to the employer are compensated from the social insurance fund of citizens of the Russian Federation, so correct calculation and execution of all documents protects you from loss of finances. Based on all of the above documents, the employer is obliged to issue an order granting the employee maternity leave and the right to receive maternity benefits from the company. Based on this order, the accountant at the enterprise calculates the amount of maternity benefits for the employee.

How to apply for maternity leave

Registration of maternity benefits begins with obtaining a certificate of incapacity for work at the antenatal clinic at the 30th week of pregnancy. Together with it, a certificate of registration in the early stages of pregnancy is issued, if the woman managed to do this before 12 weeks.

The further procedure for receiving the payment and the necessary package of documents depends on the woman’s employment. There are only three places where maternity benefits are assigned: work, educational institution and social security.

Procedure for registration of maternity leave:

1. Going on leave under the BiR and receiving 2 benefits: for early registration and under the BiR.
2. Receiving a one-time benefit upon the birth (adoption) of a child.
3. Receiving parental leave for up to 3 years and 2 benefits: up to 1.5 years and compensation payment up to 3 years.

How quickly are maternity benefits paid?

Maternity benefits are assigned and begin to be calculated within ten days after the woman submits all the required documents to the human resources department of the employer.

After calculating the benefit, its payment is made on the next day, which is established at the enterprise for paying wages to employees. In other words, the payment of maternity benefits will be made on the day the salary or advance is paid to other employees; usually, enterprises have special days or dates for this.

Let us remind you that the payment is made in a lump sum, so you will receive the entire amount credited to you in full.

Also, in the case of complicated childbirth, after it, having issued the appropriate certificate at the antenatal clinic, you can submit it to the HR department of the employer company to credit you with additional funds and extend maternity leave for the appropriate number of days.

Can maternity payments be delayed due to the fault of Social Insurance Fund employees?

Delays in payments from the Social Insurance Fund may occur if your employer makes unscrupulous contributions to the fund. If your employer has a zero balance or is declared bankrupt, then difficulties on the part of the Social Insurance Fund are inevitable. In this case, payments will be calculated and made by the social insurance fund based on the minimum coefficients.

You can go to court and try to defend your rights in court, but such a solution to the problem takes a long time and does not provide any guarantees of the final resolution of the case in your favor.

If the employer violates the terms of payment of maternity leave

As mentioned above, all payments of maternity benefits are transferred to the woman on maternity leave from the social insurance fund, the funds are transferred to the account of enterprises on whose staff the woman is on maternity leave, and from the employer’s accounts are transferred to the account of the woman who received maternity benefits.

There are situations when the Social Insurance Fund delays transferring the required amount to the company’s accounts; in this case, the employer is obliged to pay benefits from his own funds or funds prescribed in the enterprise’s budget for force majeure situations; all funds will subsequently be compensated by the social insurance fund. In case of untimely payment of funds by the employer, the employee has the right to file a complaint against him with the labor commission.

If maternity leave is not paid

Violation by the employer of the obligation to pay maternity benefits is punishable by Article 5.27 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. If the monthly allowance is not paid for more than 3 months, then criminal liability arises under Article 145.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

What is the procedure for holding an unscrupulous employer accountable:

1. We are writing a complaint to the Labor Inspectorate.
2. We notify the FSS of the violation.
3. We are drawing up an application to the Prosecutor's Office to inspect the enterprise.
4. We go to court to receive the due payments.