Tatarstan approves programme to reduce share of population with incomes below poverty line

The Cabinet of Ministers of Tatarstan has approved a regional programme to reduce the share of the population with incomes below the poverty line. It is designed for 2023-2030.

The goal of the programme is to ensure the rate of sustainable growth of incomes of the population and the level of pension provision not lower than inflation, as well as to reduce the poverty level in Tatarstan by 2030 by half compared to 2017. Its tasks include the development of a system of social assistance to the needy, a social contract system and the organisation of social adaptation of the poor.

It is expected that the implementation of the programme will make it possible to build an effective system for the withdrawal of citizens from a difficult life situation by ensuring sustainable growth of real incomes, increasing the targeting of social services and promoting employment.

The programme states that according to the results of a sample observation of the income of the population and participation in social programmes for 2022, conducted by Rosstat, the share of the poor in the total urban population was 1,6% against 2% in 2019. In rural settlements, the indicator reached 5,6%, which is less than in the pre-pandemic year — 8,4%.

More than half — 52,2% — of the total poor population were households of five or more persons. Of these, 41,6% have three or more children.

There are 33 events in the implementation plan of the programme. For example, in 2023-2030, Tatarstan intends to gradually increase the salaries of certain categories of social and scientific workers, increase the minimum wage, monitor indicators of the level of repayment of unpaid wages to employees of organisations of the republic, as well as organise work to reduce informal employment.

Tatarstan will also keep a register of citizens with incomes below the subsistence minimum in the context of districts and urban districts.

Let us remind that in 2022 the share of Tatarstan residents living below the poverty line was 5%, which is the lowest since 1995. This is 194,3 thousand people.

For the period from 1995 to 2022, the highest percentage of Tatarstan residents with monetary incomes below the poverty line was registered in 2000. It was 33,2%.