Evaluation of the differentiation of social protection of the population of the southern macroregion of Russia

The urgency of the issues of maintaining an acceptable standard of living for certain groups of Russians has recently become increasingly important. The various social protection mechanisms used by the state (pensions, allowances, benefits, etc.) do not fully fulfill their mission, since the level of social protection provided varies from tens of rubles to thousands of rubles depending on the type of protection. The transformation of economic relations, the revision of certain aspects of the paternal system of social protection of the population from the standpoint of strengthening efficiency, expediency and targeting, as well as reorientation to new models of social protection based on partnership between the state, business and society require a unified approach. However, the high regional differentiation of the subjects of the Russian Federation by the population’s living standards and the financial possibilities of the territories is quite a challenge. This argument is proved by the authors using the example of the Southern Federal District (SFD). To better illustrate the situation, the indicators for individual regions of the SFD were compared with the average values in Russia. The analysis of the provided social protection measures on the territory of the SFD makes it possible to identify the leading regions (the Krasnodar Krai, the Rostov Region) and the outsider regions (the Republics of Adygea and the Republics of Kalmykia). In addition, it has been found out that not all measures of social protection are applied in all regions of the Southern Federal District, in particular regional maternity capital and a one-time cash payment at the birth of the third and subsequent children until the child reaches the age of 3 years. To minimize the regional differentiation of the social protection provided, the authors propose such measures as the creation of a single information platform (base) of all measures of social protection of Russians in Russia; the unification and codification of social legislation at the level of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation; the creation of a regional and federal “social treasury” as an instrument for the transition of the Russian system of social protection from leveling measures to targeted ones.