The Social Policy Ministry made over 2,000 children's allowance payments each week since the first week of July, a ministry spokesman said.

Reacting to comments by the Labour Party's spokesman for social solidarity, Marie Louise Coleiro, the spokesman said the government had effected 22,000 payments out of the 28,000 applications that had been made on time.

Ms Coleiro said a delay in the issuing of children's allowance cheques was causing hardship to many families, threatening their quality of life and dignity.

The ministry spokesman attributed the delays to the full implementation by the social services department of legal provisions which, he said, could not be ignored.

He said there was now an anti-fraud benefit strategy aimed at ensuring that people received the amount they were due to avoid a situation whereby the government would have to reclaim refunds. Had this method not been used, many receiving a benefit would have risked being asked for a refund due to overpayment.

The spokesman said that a good majority of people who received social assistance had already received their children's allowance as these were given priority.