Money coach Luca Caruana welcomed the PL’s electoral promise to raise the child birth bonus to €5,000, warning that raising a child can cost parents up to €10,000 from pregnancy till the baby’s first birthday.
Mr Caruana tells WhosWho.mt that he is particularly glad that a chunk of this bonus, €3,000, will start being given to parents during pregnancy.
A few years ago, the money coach carried out an analysis which found that having a baby could cost up to €10,000, including €1,500 on vaccines and paediatrician fees, €600- €1,200 on milk, €800 on nappies, €800 on a nursery room, €700 on baby clothes, €700 on purchasing an infant car seat, and €600 on the mother’s visits to a doctor.
While more vaccines are now free of charge, prices of other goods and services have increased.
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His analysis didn’t take into account babysitting costs and income loss if one or more parents decide to work reduced hours.
The Maltese Government already provides natural and adoptive parents with a baby bonus – €1,000 for their first child, €1,500 for their second, and €2,000 for their third and beyond. All of these allowances are currently issued after the baby is born.
However, Prime Minister Robert Abela has pledged to increase the bonus to €5,000 for every child, with the first €3,000 paid during pregnancy and the remainder after the child is born.
Mr Caruana said that this is a crucial development, since his analysis found that parents spend most of their €10,000 costs during pregnancy.
“I met with the PL executive to discuss ways to improve people’s personal finances, and this issue [the child bonus] came up since MaltaDaily had published a video of me speaking about it that went viral.”
“Someone in the meeting proposed increasing the bonus to €5,000 or €10,000 but I told them that if the allowance is only handed out after the child is born, the parents will still have to spend a lot during pregnancy,” he said.
