Regional payments for servicemen and families: refusal and disputes

What is happening

Regional payments are awarded not by the ministry of defence but by the region's social protection authority, under its own rules. So Moscow, the Moscow region and other regions differ: one looks at registered address, another at the place of call-up or where the contract was signed.

Hence the commonest situation: a man is called up in one region, registered in another, while the family in fact lives in a third. Each authority replies that the other should pay, and a family with a clear entitlement receives nothing.

The second most common refusal turns on wording. The certificate does not state the participant status, the start date does not match the order, the operation is named differently from the regional rules. This is fixable, but through correspondence and usually through the court.

What the law says

• Regional payments are established by a region's own laws and decrees, not by federal law; the conditions and the list of documents are found in that region's act.
• A region may set the conditions for payment, but it may not refuse on a ground that does not appear in its own rules.
• Participant status and the period of participation are proved by the unit's documents and extracts from orders; we request a certificate in the required form separately.
• A refusal by a social protection authority is challenged in the district court under the rules of administrative procedure, not in the military court.
• Article 219(1) of the Code of Administrative Procedure allows three months from receipt of the refusal to go to court, so keep the authority's letter with its date.
• A regional payment does not affect federal payments and does not reduce them: it is a support measure in its own right.

What we do

• We locate and work through your region's act: who pays, on what conditions, which documents are mandatory.
• We determine which region is in fact obliged to pay in your situation and record that by reference to the rules.
• We request from the unit the certificates and extracts from orders in the exact wording the regional rules demand.
• We prepare the application and, on refusal, the complaint to the superior authority, so the position is on record.
• We prepare and conduct the administrative case in the district court challenging the refusal.
• We follow the award through after judgment and, if needed, take it to the bailiffs.

What we need from you

• The written refusal from the regional authority, with the date you received it.
• Service documents: the contract, extracts from orders, the certificate of participation.
• Documents on registration and on where the family actually lives.
• Documents of relationship where the family is claiming: marriage and birth certificates.
• The application you filed and the list of documents attached to it.
• Bank details and the applicant's identity document.