MOSCOW, December 2 (RAPSI) – The Governmental Law-Making Commission has approved an initiative envisaging expanded range of uses of payments intended to improve living conditions of multi-children families.

The document sets forth that such families purchasing housing in need of alteration works or unfinished houses, as well as those taking out building loans are to be eligible for these payments. An extended range of objectives the payments are to be permitted to be spent on may result in a rise in the amount of the total state support provided to large families under this program up to 2.5 billion rubles ($33 million at the current exchange rate), as Chairman of the Association of Russian Lawyers Vladimir Gruzdev told RAPSI.

The lawyer noted that currently large families are in practice frequently refused support because of specifics of their housing.

In most cases, large families were refused support payments if they purchased housing in need of alteration works, even if such purchases answered the requirements set forth by the legislation, Gruzdev observed.