Read the text to fulfil the tasks. The incidence of poverty increased sharply in Russia during its period of economic transition

The incidence of poverty increased sharply in Russia during its period of economic transition. Children aged 7-15 years and women are at the highest risk. The two main reasons for the rise are a sharp economic contraction during much of the transition period and a large increase in income inequality. Increased income inequality has resulted in part from a shift of income from wages to income from entrepreneurship, which is typically distributed more unequally than wage income. The decline in wage income is the result of both a sharp drop in the number of public-sector jobs and a large decline in real public-sector wages. Unemployment of a family member is another strong covariate of household poverty.

Despite its large incidence, much of the poverty in Russia is relatively transitory, with nearly 55% of the poor escaping poverty on their own over one-year spans. This implies that the potential for reducing poverty broadly and rapidly via economic growth is significant. Indeed, independent research suggests a decrease in the incidence of poverty over the last three years, with significant economic growth in Russia. The long-term poor should be an important target group for social assistance schemes and anti-poverty programs.

Although there are a large number of public transfer programmes in Russia, including disability allowances, child and family allowances, pensions, and unemployment benefits, these have obviously not been able to prevent a rise in poverty. There are three main reasons for this. First, the resources allocated to poverty programs are relatively small, as the budget for payroll tax-financed social insurance schemes (e.g., pensions and unemployment benefits) has fallen with the fall in wages. Second, many transfer programmes inherited from the Soviet era, such as low administered prices for food, rent, household utilities, and guaranteed employment, are not appropriate for a market economy. Third, the system of providing social benefits to certain categories of individuals does not guarantee that the genuinely poor will receive these benefits, as those categories do not always coincide with poverty status.