Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 2 July 2025
155. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Social Protection the first-year and full-year cost of doubling the monthly child benefit payment for a year for all recipients of the one family payment and the working family payment. [36570/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraChild Benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of 16 years. Currently, the payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their nineteenth birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability.
Child Benefit is currently in payment in respect of approximately 1.2 million children with an estimated expenditure of €2.2 billion for 2025.
My department currently has 83,241 children benefiting from One Parent Family Payment and 100,117 children benefiting from Working Family Parent.
However, there are an estimated 11,500 children where the claimant is in receipt of both One Parent Family Payment and Working Family Payment. Consequently, the number of individual children supported by One Parent Family Payment or Working Family Payment is calculated at 171,858.
Doubling the monthly Child Benefit payment for a year for each of these children would increase the overall expenditure on Child Benefit by approximately €288million per year.
These estimates are based on a full year basis and on the number of recipients in May 2025. It should be noted that this costing is subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated number of recipients.
