Maternity allowance: how it is calculated, calculation procedure, rules and features of registration, accrual and payment

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

How is Maternity Benefit (M&B) calculated? One day, every woman who plans to experience the joys of motherhood has to face this question. In 2018, a lump sum payment to expectant mothers is provided for the period of preparation for the birth of a child and after its birth. Only those ladies who are socially insured and officially employed are en titled to receive maternity benefits. Unemployed women, with the exception of those who were recognized as such after the liquidation of the enterprise less than a year ago, cannot claim the payment.

General settlement procedure

In comparison with previous years, the benefit payment scheme has not fundamentally changed. The amount due by law is paid to mothers for the full period of vacation in BiR. This allowance plays the role of compensation, which is accrued to a woman for the fact that she will not be able to perform her duties and receive a salary according to the staffing table -from 30 weeks of gestation.

Calculating maternity benefits is quite simple: the average daily wage is multiplied by the number of days of prenatal and postnatal sick leave. In standard cases, a woman is paid 70 days before the due date and 70 days after it.

In accordance with tax law, the lump sum maternity benefit is not taxable. No fees are withheld from these payments, and personal income tax (income tax) is not paid. The legal possibility of receiving benefits is guaranteed to an employed pregnant woman by federal laws, and the procedure and conditions for calculating are regulated in a ministerial order issued in 2009.

By the way, the right to 1 maternity benefit belongs not only to Russian women, but to foreign citizens who have a permanent residence permit in the Russian Federation. An important condition for this is that a woman must be officially employed under an employment contract.

Who is en titled to this payment

Russian laws clearly state who can receive benefits. The circle of persons applying for payment under BiR includes:

• pregnant women insured by the Social Insurance Fund in case of temporary disability, working under an employment contract or employed as personnel of a military structure, a state diplomatic mission in the territory of a foreign state;
• pregnant women who do not have official employment due to the liquidation or reorganization of the enterprise, from the momentwhich has not been more than 12 months old;
• women who are expecting a baby, who have ceased their lawyer or notarial activities, self-employment and do not have unemployed status;
• military representatives of the weaker sex, serving in the internal affairs bodies, customs, units of the Ministry of Emergency Situations under a fixed-term contract;
• students studying at the stationary department in educational and scientific institutions of commercial and state ownership.

Can a spouse get benefits

Reimbursement of maternity benefit cannot be issued to another person. Only the expectant mother can be the recipient of the payment. If a woman studies, is employed or is a civil servant, the money is paid at the place of main employment.

Domestic legislation does not exclude the possibility of processing most federal and regional payments by any other person, for example, a spouse. But when paying maternity leave, the allowance is due exclusively to the mother who actually carries and gives birth to a child. So, for example, only women are also en titled to receive assistance from the state when adopting an infant under three months of age. If the mother of the baby does not work officially, and the father is employed, he will also not be able to receive these payments.

Who should finance payments

Before you ask yourself how the maternity benefit is calculated, you first need to decide howwho should apply for legally relying money. As noted earlier, at the place of official employment (work, civil service or study), a pregnant employee must contact the personnel inspector with a request to pay maternity leave. In addition, the expectant mother must present a completed prenatal sick leave.

As soon as the payment is made, the employer sends a report to the FSS on the payment of benefits to the employee for BiR, after which the funds are transferred in full by the Fund to the employer's personal account. Thus, in fact, benefits for women during pregnancy and childbirth are paid from the Social Insurance Fund.

Even an employee who was fired less than a month ago has the right to apply for a payment to the employer. This rule also applies if:

• woman was forced to move to another area after her military husband;
• she has a disease confirmed by the MSEC commission, making it impossible to live or work in this region;
• an employee is forced to look after a disabled person of group I, who is her close relative.

If an employee is simultaneously registered with several employers and has worked only with them for the previous two years, she will be able to receive payments at each job, but in cases where a woman was employed in different places for the same period, the BiR payment she will be able to apply for only one of the current places, at her discretion.

How to get money directly from the FSS

It happens andso that a pregnant and officially employed lady cannot receive the amount due to her by law. The employer refuses to transfer the maternity allowance due to the fact that, for example, a legal entity may go through the bankruptcy process, and therefore the company simply does not have money in its account. The same difficulties will arise for employees of a company whose accounts are arrested or the new actual location is unknown. If the organization closed at the time the woman applied for benefits, there is only one way out - to go to court.

So, if the employer for some reason does not pay maternity funds, the woman will have to file a lawsuit. In order for the decision to be made in favor of the plaintiff, it is extremely important for her to prove the impossibility of receiving benefits at the place of her main employment. For a woman who is eight months pregnant or who has just given birth, it is quite difficult to take an active part in litigation. The law provides for this nuance, so a claim can be filed no later than six months from the last for postpartum sick leave.

If the court makes a positive decision, the baby's mother will be able to apply for BiR benefits through the FSS. As soon as the court decision acquires legal significance, it is necessary to submit an application to the territorial department of the Fund. Women living in the regions who take part in a pilot project under the symbolic name "Direct payments" can bypass the stage of court hearings.

When can I issue and receivecash assistance

The amount of the payment is calculated for a certain period during which the woman will actually be on maternity leave. How is maternity benefit calculated? The fundamental point in this matter is the period upon which a woman has the right to go on maternity leave and at the same time receive money.

In normal, he althy singleton pregnancies, expectant mothers leave at 30 weeks for prenatal sick leave. Women who are expecting the birth of two or more babies go on maternity leave at 28 weeks, and mothers living in regions officially recognized as affected by the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant or the Mayak plant - at 27 weeks. The right to an earlier maternity leave arises for women due to preterm birth that occurred between the 22nd and 30th weeks.

When going on maternity leave, it is important not to forget about meeting deadlines. The maternity allowance can not be issued immediately, but, as already noted, six months after the end of the decree. If the deadline was missed for a valid reason and beyond the control of the woman, she will have to prove her right in court. The opportunity to apply for benefits again will be provided to the plaintiff if the reason for missing the deadline was:

• natural disaster, fire;
• prolonged illness and stay within the walls of a medical institution for six months or more;
• forced relocation;
• death of a family member.

The procedure for assigning and processing payments

So withHow to start applying for maternity benefits? The FSS or the employer will be the last resort where a pregnant employee will have to turn. Upon reaching the 30-week period, a woman should come to the antenatal clinic and receive a sick leave there, which will indicate the preliminary date of delivery and the timing of the maternity leave. In addition to the sick leave, you need to get a certificate stating that the woman was registered with the LCD at an early date. This document will en title you to another lump sum payment. And only when you have a certificate of incapacity for work and a certificate on hand, you can proceed to the next stage.

With an application for maternity leave, a woman needs to contact the personnel department at the place of work, study or service. Non-working mothers who are eligible for benefits should go to the Social Security Fund.

An application for the allocation of benefits is made simultaneously with going on maternity leave. A woman can go on an antenatal sick leave on the same day that is indicated on the sick leave (from the 30th week of pregnancy) - this is what most employees do. In order to correctly calculate the maternity benefit, the first day of maternity leave is considered the first day of paid sick leave. However, those women whose he alth allows them to continue working until childbirth can continue to perform their duties. Then the unused part of the maternity leave will disappear, but the allowance will be assigned from the date indicated on the disability certificate. Cashare accrued from the day of actual care, however, this does not apply to employees who have a premature birth - in this case, the payment is considered for the full period.

In general, funds are allocated for a standard 140-day sick leave. If the birth took place with complications and serious consequences for the he alth of a woman or her child, the sick leave is extended, and on its basis, payments are recalculated. The missing funds are transferred to the account of the employee.

When the money for maternity leave will be credited to the account

The legislation clearly defines the period for consideration of an application for payment of maternity benefits. The maximum term for appointment and calculation of the amount is no more than ten days after the employee's request. The money will be credited to the account in the near future, as a rule, on the day on which the payroll is usually carried out at the enterprise. Those who apply for benefits through the FSS usually have to wait longer. And although the application is subject to consideration within 10 days, the payment to the account will be received no earlier than in the month following the month of application. The payment is transferred to the bank account of the pregnant woman or sent by postal order.

How maternity benefit is calculated

If desired, each woman will be able to calculate how much money she will have to transfer approximately. When calculating the maternity benefit, the FSS is based on the applicant's average daily wage, so it is impossible to name the universal amount of this payment. The employee's salary is taken into accountwhich was paid to her every month for the two years preceding her maternity leave. So, for example, in 2018, data for 2016-17 are taken as the calculation base.

To calculate the exact amount, there is a special formula used by accountants of all organizations and enterprises. The allowance is equal to the average daily income for the previous 24 months, multiplied by the sum of the days of prenatal and postnatal sick leave. To determine the average salary for one working day, all earnings for the estimated two-year period are divided by 730 or 731. Therefore, the result must be multiplied by:

• 140 (70+70) - if the pregnancy is singleton and proceeds normally;
• 156 (70 days before delivery and 86 days after delivery) - if the employee provides a certificate confirming birth complications;
• 194 (84 days before delivery and 110 days after) for multiple pregnancies.

This amount will be final. A feature of the calculation of benefits is not only the right of a woman to apply for payment at the same time to two employers with whom she was registered as an employee over the past 24 months, but also the ability to indicate other years of the billing period if she was in the previous two years for some time. parental leave. When adopting a newborn, the allowance is credited to the adoptive mother for 70 days following the date of adoption, and for the adoption of twins - for 110.

Maximum and minimum payouts

There are certain limits in which the amount of the accrued benefit must be. In 2018, for employed women, the minimum maternity allowance is 43,675.80 rubles. The amount is calculated based on the established lower threshold of average daily earnings - 311.96 rubles. Similarly, you can determine the minimum amount of maternity benefits for women who are expecting the birth of twins - this amount will be 60,521.62 rubles.

Restriction exists for recipients of large wages. The highest daily salary for calculating benefits is the amount in 2017, 80 rubles. What maternity allowance can a woman receive if her daily salary is higher than this indicator? For normal uncomplicated childbirth, the amount will be 282,493.15 rubles.

List of main documents

The first thing an employee planning to go on maternity leave will need is a sick leave received at the antenatal clinic and signed by the head. With this sick leave, you then need to go straight to the personnel department of the enterprise where she is employed. In a personal file, B&R leave is issued along with maternity allowance, but the employee will have to write two applications - for leave (in a standard situation of 140 days) and for receiving maternity benefits. The minimum amount of payment can be accrued if a woman has worked at this enterprise for less than six months.

In addition to applications and sick leave, you also need:

• certificate of income in form 182n - it is presented when applying for benefits and is provided at the main place of work;
• documentary evidence that the woman did not receive benefits at the place of registration;
• notarized extract from the work book;
• certificate from the employment center on the recognition of a pregnant woman as officially unemployed (instead of it, you can provide information about the closure of an individual entrepreneur, the termination of a lawyer or notary) is required to be presented to the FSS if the reason for dismissal was the liquidation of the enterprise.

You must apply to the territorial office of the FSS with the original passport. The applicant should take into account that in case of a recent change of surname, the passport must contain updated data. Otherwise, documents for the payment of benefits will not be accepted.

There are no standard application forms, but its general structure looks like this:

• name of the enterprise where the pregnant employee works, or branch of the FSS;
• surname and initials of the manager who decides on the grant assignment;
• last name, first name and patronymic of the applicant in accordance with the passport;
• passport data (series, document number, issuing authority, date of issue);
• information about the place of registration and actual residence;
• content of an application asking for maternity leave and accrual of funds;
• date of the first and last day of sick leave;
• method of receiving benefits (bank details or postal number are indicatedbranches);
• signature, date.

After consideration of the application, an order is drawn up to grant maternity leave and assign benefits. The document is published by the employer in any form. There is no special regulated form of the order, but usually the same information is indicated in this document as in the employee's statement. The issuance of an order means that the head of the enterprise agrees to provide the expectant mother with leave and assign benefits. At the end of the document, a responsible executor is appointed, which is most often the chief accountant.

With the execution of an order, as a rule, there are no problems, since the accounting department of any organization knows how to draw it up correctly. A copy of this document is given to the employee in her hands, and on the main copy she must put her signature on familiarization with the decision.

What other benefits are due to pregnant women in the regions of the Russian Federation

In some subjects of Russia, in addition to the main maternity allowance, municipalities provide additional payments. Funds are allocated from local budgets under various conditions. For example, in Chuvashia, only unemployed women, graduates of educational institutions and the disabled can receive financial assistance in connection with pregnancy and childbirth. The amount of the Chuvash allowance is very modest - a woman is paid about 326 rubles. for each month of gestation, starting at 12 weeks.

Expectant mothers who have an income below the subsistence level, regional authoritiesThe Volgograd region is allocated a monthly allowance of 500 rubles. The poor categories of the population are also taken care of in other regions of the Russian Federation. Local surcharges with the wording "for food" from the regional budget are carried out in the Tomsk, Penza, Ulyanovsk regions. The amount of monthly benefits for pregnant women varies between 300-600 rubles.

In addition to municipalities, an employer can establish a surcharge for a pregnant employee on their own initiative. However, in this case, the allowance will be taxed on the income of individuals, so most entrepreneurs make this payment according to accounting as material assistance. Payment at the initiative of the employer should not exceed 50 thousand rubles.

Finishing

Payment in connection with pregnancy and childbirth is due to employed women, civil servants, as well as students, graduate students who receive full-time education. The income of these women is deducted from the contributions to the Social Security Fund, which means that they have every right to take advantage of temporary disability assistance. The allowance is issued simultaneously with maternity leave at the place of main employment. Women dismissed from the enterprise due to its liquidation should apply for the purpose of payment to the territorial department of the FSS.