Parties back child support

Major political parties have expressed support for a call by advocacy groups for a universal state child-support system, which many believe will help reach out to children born to poor families.

Representatives of 10 parties including the Pheu Thai and Democrat parties discussed the matter at a forum organised in Bangkok yesterday by a network of 109 civic groups and academic institutions.

All parties promised to adopt the child support welfare idea as policy, saying they would push to make it happen if they win the general election and become a part of the new government.

Some parties even proposed to raise the maximum age of poor children entitled to receiving child support from the state from six years at present to 12 years.

They also proposed to raise monthly financial support from currently 600 baht to 1,000 baht.

Some of them vowed to ensure that welfare programme is made permanent.

Decharut Sukkumnoed, a lecturer with the Faculty of Economics at Kasetsart University, shared his experience when his child was included into Germany’s child support programme after his wife gave birth there while he was studying.

The child was included in the programme automatically as he lived in Germany, he said.

The support he received from the German government at that time was worth one-fourth of his salary.

That money enabled him to better care for his child.

The best option to ensure all babies and young children are covered under the government’s financial support for child rearing is to offer financial assistance to all no matter economic status, he said.

The current criteria for identifying lowincome families aren’t really effective in preventing a vast number of poor families from being excluded from the state child support programme, not to mention those children whose births are registered for a range of reasons.