A new €400 annual allowance is aimed at helping to lift some 22,000 children out of poverty.
This will not be a cash handout like the children’s allowance, Social Policy Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said, but will be linked to school attendance, regular health check-ups and psycho-social attention, among others.
Launching the new supplementary allowance, Ms Coleiro Preca said it was a long-term measure aimed at eradicating poverty among children and was linked to other policies and measures, such as the reduction of water and electricity tariffs, which will give families more spending power.
Families will receive €400 per child per year for the first three children. The allowance for the fourth child onwards will halve. This measure will cost the exchequer €9 million a year and will be paid from September this year.
This is not a cash handout. Taxpayers’ money has to be well spent
Parents who earn under €11,000 will be entitled to the extra allowance, as well as employed single parents who earn under €9,000 and unemployed single parents who earn less than €7,000.
She said the allowance would be given over and above the children’s allowance currently received.
Ms Coleiro Preca said the extra allowance carried added responsibilities and conditions and those parents who did not make good use of the funds would not receive them.
However, these funds will still be deposited in an account or a trust in the children’s name and they would be granted access to them once they grow up.
“This is not a cash handout. Taxpayers’ money has to be well spent,” she said.
To benefit from this scheme, parents must send their children to school regularly and take them for regular health check-ups, including dental hygiene, as well as ensure their children participate in social, sportive or cultural activities.
Parents do not need to apply for this benefit, she said, as the government already had the necessary information.
Poverty trap
One in three children live in poverty, the Social Policy Ministry said yesterday.
The new allowance will be given to:
• 7,700 single parents and their 12,400 children who earn less than €9,000 a year.
• 5,000 couples and their 10,000 children who have an annual income of less than €11,000.