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DUMA TO EXAMINE APPEAL TO GOVERNMENT ON BENEFIT PAYMENTS

MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti) - At its plenary meeting on Wednesday, the State Duma plans to consider an address to the government concerning the implementation of the law on benefit payments, which became effective January 1, 2005, Boris Gryzlov, speaker of the lower house, told reporters on Tuesday after the Duma Council ended its meeting.

"We see that in many cities of Russia pensioners and benefit recipients are taking to the streets," Gryzlov said.

In his view, public disgruntlement is due to the non-observance of the law. "The law is just, it offers additional privileges to benefit recipients," the house chairman said.

At the same time, he pointed out that some local authorities misread the stipulations of the law.

If regional budgets lack funds for benefit payments, in-kind benefits may be retained, the speaker recalled. But, according to Gryzlov, regional authorities have failed to exploit this possibility.

Andrei Isayev, the head of the labour and social policy committee, said that parliamentarians also intended to examine an appeal to the prosecutor-general over the failure to observe the law on benefit payments, on Wednesday.

People who staged impromptu rallies in Vladimir, Samara, Solnechnogorsk and Khimki expressed complaints to local authorities, the deputy added.

He emphasised that the law on benefit payments did not abolish but retained all the existing benefits in full. The amount of benefit financing cannot be cut back, nor can the number of categories of benefit-receiving citizens be reduced. The size of compensations must be adequate to benefits, Isayev said.

At the same time, some of the regions failed to make benefit payments for January at the end of last December, as was envisaged in the legislation, he explained.