How to get a utility subsidy

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The state can pay for your apartment. At least partially.

What is utility bills subsidy

A subsidy for housing and communal services is a type of material support for low-income families. Money is allocated from the regional budget free of charge. But if you spend them for the wrong purposes or social security authorities find out that there was no reason to receive funds, the subsidy will have to be returned.

Who can receive the subsidy

According to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, a subsidy can be obtained if a family spends more than the maximum share of the total family income established in the region on paying for housing and communal services. At the federal level, the benchmark is set at 22% of total revenues, but the regional authorities have the right to reduce this figure.

If the average per capita family income is below the regional subsistence minimum, then the maximum share decreases in accordance with the coefficient, which is calculated by the formula:

Coefficient = average per capita family income / value of the subsistence minimum in the region.

Applicants can:

1. Apartment owners.
2. Citizens occupying housing on social rent terms.
3. Members of housing cooperatives.
4. Citizens renting an apartment from individuals - subject to an official contract and permanent registration at the place of residence.

Oksana Krasovskaya leading lawyer of the "European Legal Service"

If you live in an apartment owned by a relative, but are not registered in it and have not entered into a lease agreement, you cannot apply for a subsidy. Those who rent an apartment, but are not registered in it, should also not count on help from the state.

If you have several dwellings, you can apply for a subsidy only for one of them - the one in which you are registered.

How to get a utility subsidy

Prepare documents

It is necessary to collect a package of documents, which will include:

1. for a subsidy, which lists all family members living in the apartment.
2. A certificate of the composition of the family (obtained from the passport office, valid for 2 weeks).
3. Extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate, confirming that you own the apartment. Or a copy of the employment contract.
4. A copy of the applicant's passport, including a page indicating the place of permanent registration.
5. A copy of a single payment document for the month that passed before applying for a subsidy. The document must reflect the total amount of the payment and information about the presence or absence of debt.
6. Income statements of all family members for at least six months. This is a certificate of 2-NDFL from the place of work, a document on the amount of the scholarship from the university, and so on. Non-working people need to provide a copy of the work book and a certificate from the employment center stating that you are or are not registered. Moreover, if the husband and wife do not live together and are registered at different addresses, the income will still be considered joint and the subsidy can be issued only for one apartment.
7. Copies of documents on the basis of which you receive any benefits, social support measures and compensation for paying for housing and communal services (compensations are assigned only to privileged categories of citizens: large families, pensioners, orphans, and so on). Copies of documents must be notarized or provided with the original.
8. Documents confirming the citizenship of all family members: an internal passport, a military ID with an insert with a mark of citizenship, a birth certificate with an insert). Moreover, subsidies can be received not only by Russians, but also by citizens of states with which the Russian Federation has concluded an appropriate international agreement (now Belarus and Kyrgyzstan).

The subsidy is provided only if the citizen has no debt for housing and communal services or if there is an agreement in which he undertakes to repay it.

Submit documents

With a package of documents, you can contact:

1. Territorial department of the regional body of social protection.
2. Multifunctional Center. The nearest address can be found at the MFC Russia.

In some cities, you can apply for a subsidy through the site "". You should look for this function in the service catalog, in the "Apartment, construction and land" section. Click on the "All services" button.

Select the section "Benefits for payment of housing and communal services."

Depending on the region, the required service will be named differently. You should look for the option "Providing citizens with subsidies for housing and utilities" or something similar.

Then click on the "Get a service" button, and the system will take you to the local service page, where you can apply for a subsidy.

If not, on the page you can familiarize yourself with the available methods of filing documents specifically in your locality.

How the subsidy is calculated

The amount of payments is calculated according to the formula:

Subsidy amount per month = MC × n - MDO / 100 × D.

MS - the established minimum cost of utilities in a separate municipality per person (established by the regional executive authority and published on its website).

n is the number of family members.

MDO is the maximum allowable share of the total family income to pay for housing and communal services. Established by the regional legislature and published on its website. For the calculation, only the figure is taken, without taking into account the% sign.

D is the total family income.

If the income per family member is below the subsistence level, then the coefficient (K) is added to the formula:

Subsidy amount per month = MS × n - MDO / 100 × D × K.

The formula can be transformed if you belong to a population group that is eligible for additional benefits:

1. Heroes of the Soviet Union or Russia, heroes of Socialist Labor.
2. Disabled people, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, their close relatives who are dependent.
3. Disabled relatives of military personnel who died in hostilities or due to diseases acquired in the service.
4. People affected by radiation who participated in the liquidation of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
5. Disabled people of all groups, families caring for disabled children.

The list can be expanded by regional authorities.

The subsidy will be provided only for that part of the apartment that fits into the regional standard for the normative area of living quarters. You will have to pay for the "extra" square meters yourself.

The standard of the normative area is established by the legislative body of the subject. You can find it on the website of this body or on the portals of the departments responsible for social protection.

How the subsidy is paid

The Housing Subsidies Department of the local administration (the name may vary depending on the locality) will review the application, verify the documents and respond within 10 working days. If there is not enough paper, you must bring it within a month, otherwise you will have to start the procedure from the beginning.

If the officials take a positive decision on your request, the money will be transferred to your bank account.

Those who, for health reasons or for other reasons, are unable to open and use bank accounts, the subsidy will be delivered to their homes via mail.

Oksana Krasovskaya

If the application was submitted from the 1st to the 15th day, the subsidy will be calculated from the first day of the current month, if after the 15th - from the first day of the next month.

The money will be paid within six months, then the documents will have to be collected and submitted again. If you are denied a subsidy, you must inform you within five working days.

When will the subsidy be stopped?

According to Oksana Krasovskaya, there are four cases in which money will no longer be transferred to your account:

1. You have not paid for housing and communal services for two months.
2. The recipient of the subsidy changed his place of residence and did not notify the social security authorities about this within a month after the move.
3. The composition of the family of the recipient of the subsidy changed, and he did not report this to the social protection authorities for a month.
4. The recipient of the grant does not fulfill the terms of the agreement to pay off the debt.

To find out about violations, the social security body needs to periodically contact the management company and the migration department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in your region. In the first organization, they learn about debts, in the second - that a new tenant has registered in your apartment or you have left it.

First, the social security authority will suspend the payment of the subsidy for 30 days, notifying you of this in writing within five days, and will try to find out if you had valid reasons for the violations (long hospitalization, death of a relative, delayed salary, and so on). If so, you will be paid for the missed month, and further payments will go on schedule.

If there is no good reason, the subsidy will stop being paid. You can re-issue payments when all the shortcomings have been eliminated. In this case, the documents for registration of the subsidy will have to be collected again.