Benefit to families

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32873, 23 March 1972, Page 5

Benefit to families

As a group, and at any given income level, families with dependent children are quite clearly at a disadvantage, and there is a strong case for income to be transfered to them from nonparents, the Royal Commission on Social Security says in its report. The commission suggests that this should be done by doubling the family benefit—from $1.50 a week to s 3— and that to even out income distribution further, the income tax exemption for dependent children should be abolished.

In support of this argument, the commission points out that for each child the exemption is worth $67.50 a year to those on the highest incomes, but only $33.08 to those on $2500 a year. The effect of the two recommendations in conjunction would be that the top income brackets would benefit by $10.50 a year for each child, and those on $2500 with three children would benefit by a total of about $142 a year.