TOONGABBIE mother Danielle Gardiner (pictured with her children) will be happy if the cash bonuses for children's school expenses, announced in this year's federal budget, stretch to cover uniforms for her two boys.
"I know uniforms are quite expensive so it will probably go on that," she said.
"I know the government thinks it should buy iPads and all these technologies but (uniforms are) the most constant need."
Mrs Gardiner thought the yearly payments replacing the tax-refund system, was a good move.
"If you know you're getting a cash payment you can say 'we'll wait a month to buy those new shoes'," she said.
Treasurer Wayne Swan's 2012/13 budget has scrapped the system that required parents to collect receipts for school expenses and trade them in for a return at tax time.
Instead, parents would get $410 for each child in primary school and $820 for each in high school.
Overall the scheme called the Schoolkids Bonus will cost $2.1 billion.
But the federal opposition has said it will not support the policy.
Opposition treasurer Joe Hockey said the bonuses were carbon-price compensation in disguise.