On the issue of organizing a mechanism for providing social support and protection for low-income categories of citizens in the Russian Federation

The article describes organization of the mechanism for providing social support and protection of low-income categories of citizens at various levels. At the beginning, such a category as «low-income citizens», the criteria for classifying individuals as low-income and needy, is explored. Next, the existing system of social protection in the Russian Federation, its components, as well as the functions and significance of social protection for vulnerable categories of the population are examined. As a result of the study, the author comes to the author's definition of social protection and makes proposals for additional protection measures for the category under study.