More than 13,000 families will receive child supplement this Saturday

by Gozo News · August 31, 2015

The Minister for the Family and Social Solidarity Michael Farrugia, has announced today that families on a low income would receive a child supplement for every child, this Saturday the 5th of September, for those who qualify.

“A €400 supplement for each child will be given for the first three children in each family and €200 per child, when a family has more than 3 children,”

Minister Farrugia explained that all families who earned up to €10,830 a year, whose children live with them and are under 23-years of age, would be eligible to receive the supplement.

“To be able to benefit from the grant, certain conditions have to be met.” The scheme is aimed at reducing the burden on low income families, the Minister said.

Children under 16 had to have a high school attendance of 95% while those over 16 had to be registered for work or still at school or part of youth guarantee scheme.

The Minister explained that:

The number of families that will take the Child supplement and earn just over the € 10,830 is 527.

The number of families that will benefit from the child supplement is 13 319, at a cost of € 7,598,783.

The number of families that will benefit from the children’s allowance is 16 590, with a total expense of € 6,014,520

The number of families that will benefit from a flat-rate children’s allowance is 22 956, with a total expense of € 3,870,555.

Dr Farrugya said that these figures will be analysed over the coming weeks to see whether this supplement, or the conditions to receive it, need to be amended.

Minister Michael Farrugia said that as in the last two years, the Children’s Allowance will be granted before the beginning of the school year, on the 12th of September. He said that through this measure it will help to alleviate some of the burden that families face when getting ready for their children to start back to school.

Payments will be made either directly to their bank account, or by cheque.