asked the Minister for Finance if he will state the amount of the allowance in respect of each child and the terms under which allowances for children are paid to civil servants, the total annual cost of such allowances, the number of civil servants in receipt of them, and the number of children in respect of whom they are paid.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Children's Allowances for Civil Servants.
Children's allowances at the rate of £25 a year per child, subject to a maximum of £125 a year, are payable to married men civil servants who are remunerated on scales of salary differentiated on a marriage basis, i.e., scales which provide for payment of lower rates to unmarried men and women than to married men. An allowance is payable in respect of each dependent child up to 16 years of age or in the case of invalid children or children attending school up to 21 years. Where an officer in receipt of an allowance retires from the Civil Service with a pension or a gratuity or dies while serving or after retiring with a pension or gratuity, payment of the allowance is continued for so long as it would have been paid under the usual regulations had the officer not retired or died.
As regards the figures requested by the Deputy the position on the 2nd January, 1950, was that at an annual cost of £66,375, children's allowances were being paid to 1,079 civil servants in respect of 2,655 children.