FAMILY ALLOWANCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 205, 29 August 1936, Page 12

FAMILY ALLOWANCES.

HIGHER INCOME LIMIT.

AMENDING LEGISLATION. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The Family Allowances Amendment Bill, which was introduced in the House of Representatives' by Governor-General's Message to-day, is a measure of only four clauses which gives effcct to the policy of the Government as expressed in the Budget. It is retrospective to July 1.

Clause two provides that application for an allowance under the Act may be made either by the father or by the mother of the children. In the principal Act only the father could make application.

Provision is made in clause three that the average weekly income of a family receiving the allowance shall not exceed £4. In the original Act a limit of £4 was provided, but subsequently it was j-educed to £3 12/ and then to £3 5/. Another clause provides -that a minister of religion may witness a declaration under the Act.

In reply to the Leader of the Opposition, the Minister of Pensions, Mr. Parry, said that the bill embodied the principles laid down in the Budget. The bill was a short one, its main clauses providing that either parent could sign the application form. That right had been confined to the husband in the past, and had led to certain anomalies. The reductions made had been restored and would bo retrospective to July 1.