An additional 17,000 families stand to get child benefit, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Sunday, announcing an increase in both the amount of the benefit and the income limits.

“The maximum income limits for families with three and four dependent children are now set at €90,000 and €100,000 respectively, thus satisfying the request for support for middle-class families,” he said in a video message.

He reiterated that, as decided in 2025, for families with five or more dependent children, there are no income criteria.

“In addition, with our decision, long-term distortions are addressed, with the most important being the non-interruption of support in cases of a small increase in family income,” he added.

With the new reform, the president stressed the increases will see “17,000 additional families and more than 23,000 children benefit”.

At the same time, he said, “the tuition subsidy for children up to 4 years and 4 months is also extended to about 2,000 families and 2,800 children, further strengthening the support for new parents and families”

Christodoulides said the announcement was made on Sunday ahead of Monday’s start of the new school year “where attention is focused on our children, on the future of this country”.

He described the announcement as “a new, important reform concerning the extension of child benefit, essentially strengthening support for families with children”.

He added that “with consistency and seriousness, the strong and developmental course of the economy allows us to implement targeted policies in education, health, the welfare state, with a substantial social footprint and with a clear improvement of the daily life of the citizen.

“Our goal is the continuous increase of disposable income through the return to society of the benefits of development,” Christodoulides said, adding that the government supports “families, the middle class, and change of our Cyprus”.