A HUGE number of expecting mothers delayed births in order to qualify for the increased Baby Bonus payments in July last year, a new study has revealed.
And many more soon-to-be mothers will do the same for the next increase in 2008, researchers from the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University warn.
The researchers estimated that more than 600 births were delayed until after Baby Bonus payments rose to $4000 a pop in July last year.
According to the Born (again) on the First of July study, mothers refused induced births or caesareans until the July 1, 2006.
Economics professor at the University of Melbourne Joshua Gans said that suddenly increasing the payments was “economic mismanagement”.
“This has nothing to do with whether the Baby Bonus is a good idea in general or whether it has boosted fertility,” Professor Gans said.
“All this says is that good governments need to implement policies carefully so as to not put mothers and babies at risk.
“The government should not create incentives to shift births for non-medical reasons.”
The ANU’s Andrew Leigh said that the high number – coming two years after he and Professor Gans revealed that more 1000 births were delayed for the introduction of the scheme – should send a message to governments.
The report said: “For 2006, our results show a substantial Baby Bonus effect. Our best estimate is that 687 births were moved from June 2006 to July 2006, or about 7 percent of births. Of these, about two-thirds were moved from the last week of June 2006 to the first week of July 2006. The narrowness of this window suggests that it is very unlikely that our results are driven by the timing of conceptions.”
“Rather than suddenly increasing the bonus of July 1, 2008, it would be more sensible to phase in the rise over a few weeks,” Professor Leigh said.
“Such a reform would be relatively inexpensive, and would avoid a repeat of the disruption we saw in 2004 and 2006.”
The Baby Bonus scheme was introduced in July 2004, with mothers receiving a lump sum payment of $3000.
Doctors and health workers have been concerned about the number of mothers delaying birth in order to receive the payments, citing health concerns for both woman and child.
Once again women are popping babies for money, this is why Australia's population has fallen. You get cash for kids.