Sixth Pay Commission revises Children Education Allowance

Sixth Pay Commission revises Children Education Allowance

New Delhi, Sept 4, 2008: Sixth Pay Commission has several good features and that includes revised Children Education Allowance. The government has not only revised the children education allowance for good but also made the allowance commensurate to the needs of its employees.

Though it still fall well short of what most average government employees pay for education of their kids in average schools, nevertheless it will give them a breather.

And for central government employees living in small towns and cities it will do more good. In most small towns the revised allowance of Rupees one thousand per child for two children will be more than sufficient to take care of children education of central government employees.

But in metros like Delhi and Mumbai, it will still just partially take care of the amount of money that parents spend on their kids.

This is not to deny the importance of the hefty increment. Earlier government used to pay its employees a paltry Rs 40 as tuition fees for its employees children upto class 10.

In another welcome development the government has revised hostel subsidy for children. Hostel subsidy may be reimbursed upto the maximum limit of Rs.3000 per month per child. The limits would be automatically raised by 25% every time the Dearness Allowance on the revised pay bands goes up by 50%. Revised

Salient features of the revised orders are:-

(a) Children Education Allowance and Reimbursement of Tuition Fee which were hitherto payable separately will be merged and will henceforth be known as 'Children Education Allowance Scheme'.

(b) Under the Scheme of Children Education Allowance reimbursement can be availed by Government Servants upto to a maximum of 2 children.

(c) Reimbursement as indicated above will be applicable for expenditure on the education of school going children only i.e., for children from classes nursery to twelfth, including classes eleventh and twelfth held by junior colleges or schools affiliated to Universities or Boards of Education.

(d) Henceforth, the reimbursement of Children Education Allowance shall have no nexus with the performance of the child in his class. In other words, even if a child fails in a particular class, the reimbursement of Children Education Allowance shall not be stopped.

(e) Reimbursement for the following items can be claimed under this Scheme:

Tuition Fee, admission fee, laboratory fee, special fee charged for agriculture, electronics, music or any other subject. Fee charged for practical work under the programme of work experience, fee paid for the use of any aid or appliance by the child, library fee, games/sports fee and fee for extra-curricular activities. This also includes reimbursement for purchase of one set of text books and notebooks, two sets of uniforms and one set of school shoes which can be claimed for a child, in a year.

(f) The annual ceiling fixed for reimbursement of Children Education allowance is Rs. 12000.

(g) Under this scheme, reimbursement can be claimed once every quarter. The amount that can be claimed in a quarter could be more than Rs.3000, and in another quarter less than Rs.3000, subject to the annual ceiling of Rs. 12000 per child being maintained.

(h) In case both the spouses are Government servants, only one of them can avail reimbursement under Children Education Allowance.

(i) Hostel subsidy will be reimbursed upto the maximum limit of Rs.3000 per month per child subject to a maximum of 2 children. However, both hostel subsidy and Children Education Allowance cannot be availed concurrently.

(j) The above limits would be automatically raised by 25% every time the Dearness Allowance on the revised pay structure goes up by50%.

In order to ensure that Government servants have no difficulty in claiming reimbursement, the procedure under this Scheme is being kept simple. Reimbursement should henceforth be made on the submission of original receipts on the basis of self-certification by the Government servant.

Source: http://www.khabrein.info/