TODAY is the last day to submit application forms to receive new child benefit cheques before the end of the year, the government’s Grants and Allowance Service has warned.
Petros Christoforou, director of the service, stressed yesterday that if families wanted to get their benefit before the end of this year, today would be the last day to hand in the forms.
“If families hand in their forms late, they will get paid but it will be next year,” he added.
Christoforou said there was no fixed date for when families would receive their cheques, but insisted it would be this year.
“We are trying hard to process all the forms, but according to the law they will get it by the end of this year.”
Andri Jacobs, administrator of grants and allowances, has been inundated with application forms and has been recruiting and training staff to help process the data. “We hope that by the end of the year that we will complete all the forms. We are processing the families with one and two children and have almost done families with three and four children. We have got up to 40,000 applicants in our system,” she said.
Single parents can apply for child benefit provided that they are responsible for the child and the child is living in the same building as them.
According to the new child benefit law, every family with at least one child is entitled to a basic benefit.
That varies on the size of the family. For one-child families, the parent is entitled to a benefit of £200 per year. For two children, the figure rises to £400 a year, while three-children families will get £1200. For families with more than three children, £600 is paid per child per year, but is paid monthly.
Jacobs emphasised that for large families child benefit was very good in Cyprus compared to the UK. “Here families with four children receive better benefit than in England, but in England a family with one child will be paid £60 sterling per month, while here the equivalent is £17 Cyprus pounds,” she said.
There is also a supplementary benefit for families on low income earning up to £6,000 per year.
Until now, child benefit was only available to large families, being out for the fourth child and up.
Application forms can be filled out on the internet on the Finance Ministry’s website at www.mof.gov.cy, but must be handed in or posted to the Grants Allowance Service by 2.30pm today. They should be addressed to: the General Manager, Ministry of Finance, Grants Allowance and Services department, 1489 Nicosia.
