In 2015, the population of Argentina’s children account for more than a quarter of the total population. In 2009 the Government of Argentina launched the Asignación Universal por Hijo (AUH), or Universal Child Allowance, in order respond to the impacts of the global financial crisis on household income and consolidate various non-contributory programmes implemented in the past, such as the Heads of Households Programme. The AUH is administered by the National Social Security Administration and is the third pillar of the Argentinean Family Allowances Regime, complementing programmes already in existence, such as a contributory family allowance (first pillar) and an income tax deduction (second pillar) for each child.
The AUH is a non-contributory cash transfer scheme for children whose parents are unemployed, in domestic service, self-employed, or employed in the informal sector and earn less than a minimum threshold. In order to be eligible, children must be citizens or residents of Argentina for a minimum of three years. Eligible boys and girls receive a cash transfer of USD 55 per month, with the amount increasing to USD 220 per month for children with disabilities. Claimants receive 80 per cent of the cash transfer on a monthly basis while the remaining 20 per cent is deposited into a savings account in the name of the direct beneficiary. The remainder can be collected upon meeting minimum requirements for school attendance, completing health check-ups and vaccinations. The fulfillment of conditional requirements is monitored through the National Diary of Social Security, Health and Education. In 2009 the AUH extended benefits to an addtional 3.3 million children and adolescents under 18 years of age and by 2010 AUH reached approxumately 5.7 million beneficiaries in total. According to the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, 51 per cent of children and adolescents now covered by the AUH did not receive a cash transfer within the Argentinean Family Allowances Regime.
The AUH represents a move toward integrated programming and has been designed in direct connection with the contributory social security system and seeks to make the already existing Family Allowances Regime for the formal sector more universal. The new configuration of family allowances creates a structure that is more extensive and equitable through increased horizontal coverage of allowances and by contributing to the development of a social protection floor. In this way the introduction of the AUH represents a major step towards meeting the challenges involved in closing the coverage gap of children and adolescents and solving problems of poverty and indigence in the Republic of Argentina.
Further Reading:
- Fabian Rapetto, Fernanda Potenza Dal Masetto (2012). Social Protection Systems in Latin America and the Carribean: Argentina. United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Carribean, Santiago. Accessed from http://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/4029/S2012967_en.pdf?sequence=1 on December 2016.