MP calls for benefits for three-child families

DISY deputy Lefteris Christoforou is proposing that families with three children get the same benefits as currently enjoyed by those with four or more.

Christoforou, whose bill was discussed at the House interior committee yesterday morning, said the aim was to reverse the slump in the birth rate on the island. Cyprus currently has a lower birth than death rate.

“This (amendment) would benefit between 22 and 23 thousand children and would certainly provide a strong incentive for improving demographic indicators,” Christoforou told the committee.

Families with more than three children enjoy a number of advantages under the large family (polytekni) law: state benefits, free health care, entitlement to a duty free car and exemption from army service for the oldest son.

Interior Ministry representatives at the committee did not commit themselves on Christoforou’s proposal, but said they were currently preparing a wide-ranging plan for “improving” demographic indicators.

When would this plan be ready, wondered committee chairman Nicos Katsourides. No answer was forthcoming and Katsourides responded that if, by the next committee session, the ministry men could not say when the plan would be ready, deputies would push ahead with Christoforou’s bill.

Christoforou said his proposal would cost the government about £7 million a year. The state currently spends £15 million on polyteknifamilies.

Meanwhile, Labour Minister Andreas Moushiouttas yesterday said people were living longer and longer on the island. Life expectancy had risen to 75.3 years for men and 79.8 years for women, he said.

Today, just over 11 per cent of the island’s population is classified as elderly, whereas at the turn of the century they represented only 4.2 per cent of the populace.

“In 30 years time, it is predicted that the elderly will exceed 20 per cent of the population,” Moushiouttas stated.

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