Children's Allowances (Amendment) Act, 1946

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Number 8 of 1946.

CHILDREN'S ALLOWANCES (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1946.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

SCHEDULE.

Number 8 of 1946.

CHILDREN'S ALLOWANCES (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1946.

AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHILDREN'S ALLOWANCES ACT, 1944 . [2nd April, 1946.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—

Interpretation.

1.—(1) In this Act—

the expression “the Act of 1944” means the Children's Allowances Act, 1944 (No. 2 of 1944);

the expression “children's allowance” means an allowance under section 6 of this Act;

the expression “payment period” means a period appointed under section 7 of this Act to be a payment period;

the expression “qualified child” means a child declared by section 4 of this Act to be a qualified child;

the expression “qualified person” means a person declared by section 5 of this Act to be qualified for a children's allowance;

the expression “qualifying date” means a day appointed under section 3 of this Act to be a qualifying date.

(2) This Act shall be construed as one with the Act of 1944.

Commencement.

2.—This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as may be fixed therefor by order or orders of the Minister either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so fixed for different purposes and different provisions of this Act.

Qualifying dates.

3.—The Minister shall from time to time appoint such and so many dates as he thinks fit to be the qualifying dates for the purposes of this Act and may appoint different qualifying dates for different categories of persons.

Qualified child.

4.—A child shall be a qualified child on a qualifying date if, on the said qualifying date—

(a) he is alive and under the age of sixteen years, and

(b) he is ordinarily resident in the State, and

(c) he is not detained in a reformatory or an industrial school.

Qualified person.

5.—(1) A person, with whom, on a date which is for him a qualifying date, three or more children who are on that date qualified children normally reside, shall be qualified for a children's allowance in respect of those children.

(2) For the purpose of subsection (1) of this section—

(a) the Minister may prescribe rules for determining with whom a qualified child shall be regarded as normally residing,

(b) a qualified child shall not be regarded as normally residing with more than one person, and

(c) where a qualified child is resident in an institution, he shall be regarded as normally residing only with that person (if any) who contributes towards the cost of his maintenance in the institution, and with whom he would, under this section, be regarded as normally residing, if he were not resident in an institution.

(3) Rules prescribed under subsection (2) of this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after they are prescribed, and if a resolution is passed by either House of the Oireachtas within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the rules are laid before it annulling the rules, the rules shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under the rules.

Children's allowances.

6.—(1) Where a person, who, on a qualifying date, is qualified for a children's allowance in respect of qualified children, applies therefor, within the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner, and complies with the prescribed conditions as to identification, the following provisions shall have effect:—

(a) the said person shall be paid, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, a weekly allowance for the payment period appointed for him under section 7 of this Act, at the rate of two shillings and sixpence for each such qualified child in excess of two;

(b) where, but for this paragraph, a particular child would be reckoned in calculating the allowance to be paid to two or more persons in respect of the same week, that child shall be reckoned in calculating such one only of those allowances as the Minister thinks fit, and, for the purpose of giving effect to this paragraph, any other allowance otherwise payable shall be reduced or terminated accordingly;

(c) the right of the said person to the said children's allowance shall not be affected by the death of any such qualified child or, subject to paragraph (d) of this subsection, by any such qualified child otherwise ceasing to satisfy the conditions mentioned in section 4 of this Act;

(d) if any such qualified child ceases to satisfy the conditions mentioned in paragraph (c) of section 4 of this Act, then, at the discretion of the Minister, the said child may, in respect of the said payment period or the unexpired part thereof (as the case may be) cease to be regarded as a qualified child and the application for the said allowance shall be determined, or, if the allowance has already been awarded, the award shall be revised, accordingly.

(2) Where a qualified person dies without having applied for a children's allowance the application may be accepted from such person in his stead as the Minister thinks fit.

(3) Where a qualified person, having applied for a children's allowance, dies before his claim is decided, the children's allowance may be awarded to such person in his stead as the Minister thinks fit.

(4) Where a person who has been awarded a children's allowance dies, the children's allowance may be paid to such person, or among such persons and in such proportions, and subject, in any case, to such conditions, as the Minister thinks fit.

(5) Where a person who has been awarded a children's allowance is in prison or detained in a mental home or the Minister is satisfied that he has neglected any of the children in respect of whom the children's allowance has been awarded, then, at the discretion of the Minister, the children's allowance may cease to be paid or may be paid to such person, or among such persons and in such proportions, and subject, in any case, to such conditions, as the Minister thinks fit.

(6) Where a qualified person is for the time being absent from the State, an application on his behalf in respect of a children's allowance may be accepted from such person as the Minister thinks fit.

(7) A children's allowance shall be paid only within the State.

(8) The expression “children's allowance” in the Act of 1944 shall mean an allowance under this section.

Payment period.

7.—(1) Where a person is found to have been a qualified person on a qualifying date the following provisions shall have effect:—

(a) there shall be appointed for him a payment period which—

(i) if he was on the qualifying date already entitled to an allowance (whether under this Act or the Act of 1944), shall commence on the expiration of the period for which he was on that date so entitled,

(ii) if he was not so entitled, shall commence not later than three months after the qualifying date,

(iii) unless otherwise determined, shall be a period of twenty-six weeks, but shall not in any case be less than fifteen weeks or more than forty-three weeks;

(b) at any time before the commencement of a payment period so appointed for any person a payment period of different duration may, subject to paragraph (a) of this subsection, be appointed for him in lieu of the said payment period.

(2) The appointment of payment periods shall be the duty of the deciding officers.

Evidence in proceedings under section 11 or section 12 of the Act of 1944.

8.—In any proceedings under section 11 or section 12 (as amended by this Act) of the Act of 1944, a certificate, purporting to be signed by a deciding officer, of an award or decision of the said deciding officer shall be prima facie evidence of the making of the said award or the giving of the said decision, and of the terms thereof, without proof of the signature of the deciding officer or of his official capacity

Time limit for prosecutions under section 12 of the Act of 1944.

9.—A prosecution for an offence under section 12 of the Act of 1944, as amended by this Act, may be brought at any time within whichever of the following periods later expires, that is to say—

(a) three months from the date on which evidence sufficient in the opinion of the Minister to justify a prosecution for the offence comes to his knowledge, or

(b) twelve months after the commission of the offence,

and a certificate under the official seal of the Minister as to the date on which such evidence comes to his knowledge shall be conclusive evidence thereof.

Deposit by Minister of children's allowance in Post Office Savings Bank.

10.—Subject to the enactments for the time being in force in relation to the Post Office Savings Bank, the Minister may, with the authority of a person entitled to a children's allowance, deposit (and the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs may receive) the said allowance to the account of that person in the said Bank, and section 2 of the Post Office Savings Bank Act, 1861, shall not apply to a deposit so made.

Exemption from stamp duty.

11.—Notwithstanding anything contained in section 1 of the Stamp Act, 1891, or the First Schedule to that Act, stamp duty shall not be chargeable on any receipt given for payment of a children's allowance.

Amendments of the Act of 1944.

12.—Each section and subsection of the Act of 1944 mentioned in the first column of the Schedule to this Act is hereby amended in the manner set out, opposite the mention thereof, in the second column of the said Schedule.

Repeal of sections 2 and 3 of the Act of 1944.

13.— Section 2 and section 3 of the Act of 1944 are hereby repealed.

Short title and collective citation.

14.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Children's Allowances (Amendment) Act, 1946.

(2) The Act of 1944 and this Act may be cited together as the Children's Allowances Acts, 1944 and 1946.

SCHEDULE.

Amendments of the Act of 1944.