DA hike: The Centre has revised the children’s education allowance and hostel subsidy for government employees. These allowances are linked to the hike in dearness allowance (DA) of employees and pensioners. Earlier this year, the Centre announced a 4% hike in dearness allowance and dearness relief for employees and pensioners. With this hike, the DA stands at 50% of the basic pay, against 46% earlier.
With the hike in DA, certain allowances like children’s education allowance (CEA) and hostel subsidy automatically got revised by up to 25%. These revisions come in the wake of the enhancement of dearness allowance, effective from January 1, 2024, and are in line with a 2018 directive that stipulates a 25 per cent automatic increase in the limits of children’s education allowance and hostel subsidy whenever the dearness allowance on the revised pay structure rises by 50 per cent.
The Department of Personnel & Training has said the limits of children’s education allowance and hostel subsidy “would be automatically raised by 25% every time the dearness allowance on the revised pay structure goes up by 50%”.
What is the revised education allowance, hostel subsidy?
The Ministry of Personnel has officially established the reimbursement rates for children’s education allowance and hostel subsidy. Effective from January 1, 2024, the education allowance is set at Rs 2,812.5 per child per month, and the hostel subsidy at Rs 8,437.5 per child per month. These amounts are fixed and will be disbursed irrespective of the actual expenses incurred by government employees.
Additionally, the ministry stipulates that divyang (differently abled) children of government employees are entitled to receive twice the standard education allowance rate, which equates to Rs 5,625 monthly; this also does not depend on actual costs.
Furthermore, in an effort to provide enhanced support for women with disabilities handling childcare duties—the special child care allowance has been revised upwards to Rs 3,750 a month. This measure aims to alleviate some of the financial burdens faced by these women employees.
“References are being received from various quarters with regard to the amount of children education allowance and hostel subsidy admissible consequent upon enhancement of dearness allowance payable to central government employees @ 50% w.e.f. 1st January, 2024,” the department said in an office memorandum issued on April 25.
Other allowances
Besides education allowance, Risk Allowance, Night Duty Allowance (NDA), Over Time Allowance (OTA), Special Allowance Payable to Parliament Assistants, and Special Allowance for Child Care for Women with Disabilities have been revised.