Large families stage angry protest outside House

SCORES of people from large families held an angry protest outside the House yesterday over proposals to cut benefits they say are unfair towards larger families.

A child held a banner saying ‘Children are a blessing and not a curse’, while others held banners demanding equal opportunities for children or accusing the government of trying to reduce them to beggars.

The proposals are “unfairly eradicating even the poorest (person)”, head of the Large Families Association, Paraskevas Samaras, said, adding that the plans did not just target only those who had money to spare.

The government wants to introduce income criteria to benefits in a bid to save €200 million from social welfare cuts.

Around half of that is meant to come from targeting student and child benefits by introducing income criteria.

According to the proposal, all families earning over €89,000 a year would stop getting benefits. Lower income families would be on a sliding scale with those earning €39,000 or less getting no cuts.

If the proposal is approved, the state stands to save €80 million with €20 million saved from introducing an income cap for student grants.

Main opposition DISY’s deputy president Averof Neophytou said DISY would not be voting in favour of the government’s bills.

Neophytou said the government was targeting specific groups and was leaving other benefits untouched.

DIKO’s Nicolas Papadopoulos said they agreed with targeting benefits but said that some families would lose important incomes which were part of their financial budget.

Ruling party AKEL’s Yiannos Lamaris said that a “painful compromise” was required because of the global financial crisis.

Meanwhile, House President Yiannakis Omirou met the angry family members outside parliament.

“I assure you that the House at large will treat the group of large families as it always has,” Omirou said. He added that the House was discussing government proposals but this did not mean they would adopt them.