Definition: Family/children-related allowance

Category: EU-SILC

The family/children function refers to benefits that:

- provide financial support to households for bringing up children,
- provide financial assistance to people who support relatives other than children.

It includes:

- income maintenance benefit in the event of childbirth: flat-rate or earnings-related payments intended to compensate the parent for loss of earnings due to absence from work in connection with childbirth for the period before and/or after confinement or in connection with adoption,
- birth grant: benefits normally paid as a lump sum or by instalments in case of childbirth or adoption,
- parental leave benefit: benefit paid to either mother or father in the event of interruption of work or reduction of working time in order to bring up a child, normally of a young age,
- family or child allowance: periodical payments to a member of a household with dependent children to help with the costs of raising children,
- other cash benefits: benefits paid independently of family allowances to support households and help them meet specific costs, such as costs arising from the specific needs of lone-parent families or families with handicapped children. These benefits may be paid periodically or as a lump sum.

It does not include:

- payments made by employers to an employee in lieu of wages and salaries through a social insurance scheme when unable to work through maternity leave, where such payment cannot be separately and clearly identified as social benefits (these payments are included under "Gross cash or near-cash employee income" (PY010G)),
- additional payments made by employers to an employee to supplement the maternity leave pay entitlement from a social insurance schemes, where such payments cannot be separately and clearly identified as social benefits (these payments are included under "Gross cash or near-cash employee income" (PY010G)). http://ec.europa.eu/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2003/l_298/l_29820031117en00010022.pdf