The first payments of maternity benefits, which include TL 300 ($110) for the first child, TL 400 for the second and TL 600 for the third child, have been made. The government made the first gold payments to 78,000 women for their newborns. It is a Turkish tradition that when a couple has a child, their relatives give gold to the new parents to celebrate. Many parents have applied for the maternity benefits, which officially started on May 15, 2015, with 120,000 people applying to receive maternity benefits from the government in two weeks, according to data from the Family and Social Policies Ministry. The payments have been made to families without any deductions or levies since the program started as an incentive to increase the population and fertility rate. To receive the benefit, one must apply to provincial directorates of the Family and Social Policies Ministry or social services centers with the identity card of the newborn. Turkish citizens living abroad can benefit from the payments by delivering their applications to Turkish consulates. The ministry preferably deposits the money into the bank account of the mother. If the mother is not alive, the father or other guardian receives the payment. The first maternity benefits, which exceeded TL 24 million, were paid just before Eid al-Fitr last week.
