This, the second Bill which I am putting before the Seanad to-day, implements the announcement made by the Minister for Finance when introducing his Budget. The increases in these allowances, as Senators are aware, are 2/6 per week for the second child, in respect of whom no allowance was payable up to this, and 1/6 per week for all children after the second child, which brings the allowances for all these children up to 4/- per week. We decided to make this a monthly payment and that means that the rates will be 11/- per month for the second child and 17/6 a month for each subsequent child. The cost of these new proposals in a complete year will be around £2,750,000 and that means that the total cost of children's allowances in the coming financial year will be around £5,000,000.
Apart from these rates, the Bill deals with certain changes in administration. Some of these are very detailed. I do not want to go into great detail, but I should like to say a few further words in addition to the explanatory memorandum which has been circulated. The main purpose of the Government in agreeing to make monthly rather than weekly payments was—in line with the note on which I wound up my previous remarks—to encourage thrift.
These allowances appear to us to stand, as it were, apart from social welfare benefits of every kind and we felt that we should encourage as far as possible the mothers or fathers concerned to try to save. We know from inquiries that some parents do, in fact, put that money aside to buy a pair of shoes or clothes for one of the children, or even for the father, and we thought that by making the payment monthly, we might be able to encourage parents even more to use the money in that way. The amounts, as Senators are aware, are fairly small, but if allowed to accumulate for a month, they are more substantial and perhaps more useful. I hope later to be able to encourage parents even further by making it easier for them to invest this type of money in some of the profitable investments like Post Office savings.
The change, in addition to encouraging thrift, will have administrative advantages. I think I mentioned that there are something like 220,000 or 230,000 families which means that that number of cheques went out every week and to reduce that number of transactions to once a month will undoubtedly be a very big saving administratively and will also make the work in post offices very much easier. I want to make it clear, because there seems to be some misunderstanding, that these cheques are payable in advance. They have always been paid in advance by the week and now they will be paid every week for the month of June, and then the full monthly cheque for July will be paid on the first Tuesday of July, and thereafter always on the first Tuesday of the month.
There is also a change in this Bill in regard to the qualifying period. Up to this the thing was rather involved. A person had to qualify during a two-monthly period and payment did not commence until the following period. Then sometimes if they missed over one period it meant they were permanently deprived of a certain amount which they could have received if they had applied in time. Now we are changing the scheme. We are now bringing in a system which is the very same as that which applies to old age pensions or widows' and orphans' pensions. You apply on a certain date and if the application is in order then it is payable from the date of application. In fact, it may be payable from even before that date, as I think it is laid down that if the person applies within three months of the birth of a child the allowance will be payable back to the date of birth. At the other end, payment will cease when the child reaches 16 years of age. That is all that is in the Bill—it increases the benefits and makes these few administrative changes.
