The federal government's new enhanced Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) comes into effect on Monday, July 20, 2015.

The change will increase the monthly payment per child under six years of age from $100 to $160.

The benefit is also being expanded to include older children. Parents will receive $60 per month for every child between 6 and 17 years of age.

Portage-Lisgar MP Candice Bergen is the Minister of State for Social Development.

2015 07 candice bergen
Candice Bergen

“We feel it's very important to give money back to families and back to the tax payers, rather than the government keeping it and creating big bureaucratic government programs that maybe help a few but don't help everybody,” she explained. “We think the best policy is to give money directly back to families and in this case in terms of child care we think families are best placed to make the decisions in terms of what kind of child care they want to use.”

Parents should automatically be enrolled in the new program unless they have never applied for the UCCB in the past.

Cheryl Crick, a mother of two teenagers, is welcoming the increased payments.

“For older children I think it's fantastic,” she said. “Children don't stop at six and costs always increase...I think you'll see a lot of the parents using it to put their children into different programs that they may not be able to do otherwise. I think it will be a huge benefit to the families.”

The July 20th payment will include $520 for every child under 6 years of age and $420 for every child between the ages of 6 and 17.

The increase is being backdated to January 1, 2015.