Abstract: Currently, the Russian Federation is actively modernizing the social support system of the population, taking place in the context of achieving the national development goals until 2030, which include the goal of reducing the poverty level. However, despite the broad architecture of the social protection system, the poverty level in the Russian Federation remains significant, which actualizes academic research on fine-tuning the targeted social support system. The subject of the study is the effectiveness of government spending on the financial provision of targeted social benefits (first of all, the monthly allowance in connection with the birth and upbringing of a child under 17 years of age as the main targeted payment in the Russian architecture of targeted social support measures). Based on the indicators proposed by the author, an assessment of the social and budgetary effectiveness of the monthly allowance in connection with the birth and upbringing of a child under 17 years old was carried out. It is concluded that there are "inadequate funds" in the structure of budget expenditures directed to the financial provision of this payment, creating a surplus (surplus) of income for some recipient households in relation to the subsistence minimum. This property is caused by the discrete procedure for determining the amount of payment for households with different incomes. At the same time, it is shown that the maximum payment amounts are insufficient to remove the least well-off households with children from the poverty zone. Moreover, the author's analysis showed the cost comparability of these post-transfer deficits and income surpluses, which made it possible to form the author's proposals for targeted redistribution of budget funds. So, based on the identified problems, changes are proposed to the procedure for assigning monthly allowances in connection with the birth and upbringing of a child under 17 years old, related to the transition to a continuous determination of the amount of payment based on the size of the income deficit of the recipient household. The proposed redistribution of budget funds makes it possible to completely overcome the poverty of households with children and does not require additional budget expenditures. These results have high practical significance for the activities of the Ministry of Labor of Russia and the Ministry of Finance of Russia, as well as regional executive authorities responsible for the implementation of social policy.

Abstract: One of the promising instruments of social support for the population in the Russian Federation is a social contract, the feature of which is the conditional nature of social payments, requiring poor citizens to take active actions to improve their living situation (job search, vocational training, doing business). This study analyzes the Russian and foreign experience in organizing social contract instruments (the TANF program in the USA and the RSA program in France). The subject of the author's research is the effectiveness of budget expenditures of the budgetary system of the Russian Federation for the financial provision of the social contract mechanism in the context of the allocated areas of assistance. Special attention is paid to the legal support of the functioning of the social contract in terms of methods for evaluating its effectiveness and the distribution of appropriate subsidies from the federal budget. Based on the criterion proposed by the author of the relative amount of budget expenditures per citizen who has overcome the poverty threshold, an assessment of the budgetary effectiveness of various areas of assistance under the social contract is carried out. The conclusion is made about the difference in the evaluation results when using official indicators and the author's approach. Thus, official data indicate the success of the results of the social contract program, comparable with foreign analogues. The author's assessment of budgetary efficiency showed the irrational use of budgetary funds: 60% of financial resources in 2021-2022 were directed to the least effective area of assistance. Additionally, the problems in the mechanism of federal co-financing of expenditures of regional budgets for the use of the instrument are identified. The author identifies the methodological shortcomings of the current methodology for evaluating its effectiveness. Based on the identified problems, changes are proposed in the regulatory framework governing the financial mechanism for providing assistance on the basis of a social contract. These results are of high practical significance for the activities of the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, as well as regional executive authorities responsible for the implementation of the social contract.