By a Staff Reporter
THE CABINET yesterday approved a bill granting children’s allowance to all families, which will be submitted to the House today. Currently only families with three children and over qualify for child benefit.
The annual benefit for families with one child will be £200, for two children £400 per child, for three children £1,200, and for four or more children £600 per child.
Families with one child and an income up to £6,000 will also receive an extra £50, and £25 for those with an income between £6,000 and £12,000.
Two-child families with an income of less than £6,000 per year will also receive an additional benefit of £200, and £150 if income is between £6,000 and £12,000 bracket.
Families with three children earning under £6,000 will receive additional benefit of £450 for income under £6,000 and £375 if a couple earns between £6,000 and £12,000.
For families with four or more children the additional benefit will be £600, and another £200 per child for those earning less than £6,000, and £600 plus £100 per child for those with income between £6,000 and £12,000.
The basic benefit will be given for all children under the age of 18, and in the case of families with children at third level education, it will go to male children until the age of 25 and female children until the age of 23.
The government estimates that 55 per cent of all families will qualify for the additional benefits. The move is designed to help those who fell outside the government’s tax package in January, which allows employees to earn up to £9,000 tax-free, a rise from the previous level of £6,000.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
