Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 1 October 2014
48. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the anomaly whereby parents of 18 year olds who are in full-time secondary education cannot claim child benefit and the enormous pressure this brings among poorer families in the retention of such students in education. [37227/14]
View answerChild benefit is a monthly universal payment made to families with children, which assists all parents with the cost associated with raising children. The Government is conscious that child benefit is an important source of income for all families. Child benefit is paid to around 616,000 families in respect of some 1.17 million children, with an estimated expenditure of around €1.9 billion in 2014. Child benefit as a “universal” payment is paid in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children up to their 18th birthday who are in full-time education or who have a disability.
Budget 2009 provided for the reduction of the age for which child benefit is paid from under 19 years of age to under 18 years of age. This measure was implemented in full in 2011 and has resulted in savings of €79 million on an annual basis. A value for money review of child income supports, published by the Department of Social Protection in 2010, found that the participation pattern of children in education supports the 18 year age limit for child benefit. I have no immediate plans to make any changes to the age threshold for child benefit. Furthermore, any changes to the eligibility criteria for child benefit could only be decided in a Budgetary context.
Families on low incomes can avail of a number of provisions to social welfare schemes that support children in full-time education until the age of 22, including through the payment of qualified child increases (QCIs) on primary social welfare payments and through the family income supplement (FIS). Furthermore, the back to school clothing and footwear allowance, which provides a one-off payment to assist families on social welfare and health service executive payments with the extra costs when children start school each autumn, is payable in respect of young people aged 18-22 who are in second-level education. These payments provide a level of assistance which is directly or indirectly linked with a household’s income situation. I am satisfied that the social protection system currently provides assistance to families with older children who are participating in full-time education and that this support is targeted at low-income families.
