Universal Child Allowance: What's That?
(Posted September 8, 2011 08:05 am)
By Les Coleman
TALLAHASSEE, FL - Delegates from 40 industrialized nations will gather in Iceland this month to discuss the status of family and children's social programs. Of those countries, 39 provide a universal child allowance and paid family leave as part of a comprehensive list of social services. Only the United States does not.
Professor Sheila Kamerman, co-director of Columbia University's Institute for Child and Family Policy, is the U.S. delegate to the conference. She says other modern societies have a dim view of how America treats its kids.
Link: Child Benefits in the European Union
"They think of it as U.S. exceptionalism, as being
absurd, and anti-children, anti-child-well-being."
For more than 50 years, every child in the European
Union has received a government allowance. Today, it
amounts to about 200 dollars a month, no matter the
family's income. U.S. leaders point out that America is
slowly catching up in terms of social services, but that
current political winds are blowing in the wrong
direction for more sweeping change.
Jim Akin, a Florida social services expert who is
spokesman for the child welfare division, Florida Dept.
of Families and Children, says handing out a monthly
check to every child would probably just not work in
this country.
"That would be a hard thing to sell in this environment
- you know, the political environment in this country -
simply because people would say, you know, 'Parents have
children, they should take care of 'em. It's not the
government's responsibility to pay.'"
The Florida Legislature has also rejected $50 million in
federal
"Healthy Kids" funds because a majority of state
lawmakers believe the Affordable Care Act, the law that
allocates the funds, is unconstitutional.
The other social service that European citizens enjoy is
paid family leave, time off from work when children are
born, for example. Sheila Kamerman says the average paid
time off is a year, for both mothers and fathers.
"Essentially, at the present time now, a year at 80
percent of prior wages paid, another three months that
has to do with their basic health insurance benefit, and
then another three months that's unpaid, so it's an
18-month leave, fully paid for one year."
American families have some protection under the Family
and Medical Leave Act. Workers who have been on the job
full time for at least a year at a company with 50 or
more employees, are entitled to take up to 12 weeks of
unpaid leave under certain circumstances.