The Health Minister says it's disappointing his department is criticised even after it responds to specific concerns.

Eddie Teare (pictured) was speaking in Tynwald about the uprating of social security benefits.

While members welcomed more money going towards pensioners, some weren't happy that child benefit wasn't going up this year.

Beth Espey reports:

Mr Teare said the DHSS had responded to concerns about giving more money to the elderly, and there was still a full frontal attack. He said wherever you drew the line there would be winners and losers, and accepted that his department could be more "family friendly."

Mr Teare was also questioned about the amount of child benefit which was leaving the Island for children who were actually living elsewhere. He said a data matching exercise had highlighted 199 such cases, and that number was now down to two dozen.

In conclusion Mr Teare accepted that perhaps in future the DHSS could brief members better about issues to do with the budget, but reminded Tynwald that during the budget he was warned about coming back for a supplementary vote, and that that warning had been heeded.