Some Conclusions from the Analysis of the Practice of Law on Benefit Monetization

The article concentrates on the analysis of practical application of the Federal Law ¹122-FZ of August 22, 2004 (commonly referred to as the law on benefits monetization) in the context of delineation of spending powers in the social protection sphere between the state and local governments. The author concludes that the Law ¹122-FZ, having significantly streamlined the system of delineation of spending powers in the social protection sphere, failed to solve all the problems in that field and in a number of cases gave rise to new ones. The main shortcomings of the Law ¹122-FZ, that have entailed numerous litigations, in the author’s opinion, are: inconsistencies on the issue of preserving benefits for the benefit holders whose right to receive them had arisen before the Law entered into force and uncertainty on the issue of unfunded mandates, i.e. strictly specified by federal law spending obligations of lower level budgets without compensating costs of satisfying them. The article contains the author’s propositions on the amendments to the legislation aiming to solve the identified problems.