children playing

Some missing child benefit [CA]

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Author: 
Matyas, Joe
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Article
Publication Date: 
12 Jul 2006
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EXCERPTS

An information campaign to remind Canadian parents they're eligible for a new $1,200 annual child-care benefit will be launched next week, a federal government spokes-person said yesterday.

The Conservative government's Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) came into effect on July 1 and parents will begin receiving monthly cheques of $100 for each child under six on July 20, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development said.

About 90 per cent of Canadian parents, already enrolled in the Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) program, will receive the new benefit automatically.

More than three million low- to middle-income recipients received the CCTB in June and will soon receive the new benefit as well.

But an additional 200,000 higher-income parents are also eligible for the universal benefit.

"They have to apply for it," the ministry spokesperson said, and about half of them haven't.

They can register by obtaining and submitting Child Tax Benefit forms from local federal government offices or downloading them from the Canada Revenue Agency website.

Parents who register before December will receive payments retroactive to July 1, the spokesperson said.

- reprinted from the London Free Press

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