The emergence of the concept of displacement or redistribution of resources (material or monetary) under consideration has been accompanying mankind for many centuries, but it was called differently, and the essence was interpreted somewhat differently.
In the modern sense, transfers are:
- transfer of transaction results between the accounts of the subject;
- a bank order in writing to its correspondent on the issue of a certain amount of money to a specified person;
- transfer of the right to own registered securities from one person to another with the obligatory registration of the transfer of ownership in the respective company registers, after which financial reports, dividends and announcement of the meeting should be sent to the new owner;
- using the transfer document, the shares of the joint-stock company are redistributed among their founders;
- transfer of cash resources from the fund of financial regional support to the budgets of the lower territorial level. Moreover, the share of each constituent entity of the Russian Federation requiring such financial assistance is established by calculation.
Thus, transfers are various payments that are redistributed at the federal level.
An analysis of the modern system of such distributions in Russia indicates its failure to fulfill the function of social protection as a mechanism for regulating the incomes of the population, which is in dire need of such support.
Therefore, social transfers are represented by a system of measures of in-kind and monetary assistance to the poor, not related to their participation in the activities of companies both now and in the past. The purpose of their provision is the humanization of social relations, which prevents the growth of crime and supports domestic demand.
The share and volume of resources allocated by the state to the needs of the country depend on the model of social orientation and can be different. So, in the beginning of the 90s in Japan there was a distribution of 16% of GDP for social needs, in the USA - 19.4%, in Germany - 27.5%, in Sweden - 39.8%.
In times of economic crisis, the need for social support increases and transfers come to the fore. This may turn into an unbearable burden for the Russian economy, and its gradual increase may conflict with economic growth. Today in Russia there are over a thousand regulatory acts that provide for over 250 social benefits for 200 categories of citizens. The number of people applying for these benefits and compensation reaches one hundred million.
The structure of a market economy in itself makes inevitable government intervention in the revenue sector for their redistribution. Transfers successfully solve this, because thanks to this tool the government has the funds expected to be directed to meet certain needs (for example, ecology, defense and the development of social infrastructure).
That is why the coordination of certain financial flows, which are sent to the social sphere in the form of budgets of entities and national social funds, is urgently needed.
Unlike social transfers, government transfers are payments that are not related to the acquisition of services or goods. These include scholarships, pensions, health insurance payments and some benefits.