Minister John Dalli favours means-tested children's allowance

Social Policy Minister John Dalli yesterday reiterated his belief in a means-tested children's allowance, a system which was reversed last year.

Speaking during a seminar about poverty organised by the National Family Commission, Mr Dalli said it was a waste to give the allowance to people who did not need it.

He insisted that social services had to be focused on those who really needed them: "Social services are not a buffet where everyone chooses what they want".

In 1995, when Mr Dalli was Finance Minister, the government had put a ceiling on the income earned by a household to be eligible for children's allowance and changed the method of calculating it. The decision was reversed last year following an announcement in the budget of October 2007. Apart from giving the benefit to all children independently of their parents' income, the minimum children's allowance was raised from €121.13 to €249.24.