The government is prepared to amend its 2012 spending plans to soften the effect of cuts in various child benefits on large families, sources have told Nos television.

The move has been prompted by the fundamentalist Christian party SGP. Many orthodox Christian families have large numbers of children.
The minority government will need the support of the SGP in the upper house of parliament to pass some controversial legislation and is therefore likely to make the change.
Some 19,000 poor and middle-income families with three or more children claimed extra help last year, Nos says. The government wants to restrict the payment to two children per family from 2012.