Gary Gannon
Question:138. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection if there are any measures under consideration by her Department to reduce child poverty that were not announced in the Budget. [54179/23]
View answerThursday, 7 December 2023
Questions (138)
Written answers
Budget 2024 targeted social welfare measures to assist low-income families with children by providing for the rate of the Increase for a Qualified Child to increase by €4 per week to €54 in respect of children aged 12 or over and by €4 per week to €46 in respect of children aged under 12. As a result, these rates will have increased by €10 for under 12s and by €14 for over 12s over the last four Budgets. The measure will cost an estimated €60.9 million in a full year resulting in an annual expenditure on these payments of approximately €700 million in 2024.
Increasing the Working Family Payment income thresholds is a targeted measure that is directly linked to household income, and therefore directly supports low-income working families. Budget 2024 announced an increase in these thresholds for all families by €54 per week from January 2024.
ERSI research has shown that social transfers that target children, including Qualified Child Increase and Working Family Payment, have the greatest effect on poverty. This is true for the overall population but particularly for children and people living in rented accommodation and groups that are the most exposed to poverty. Reform of the Working Family Payment by increasing the earnings limit was found to be particularly effective in reducing income poverty.
In addition, I intend to publish legislation shortly which will provide for child maintenance payments to be disregarded in the means test for social welfare payments. This measure will mean that many lone parents currently on reduced rates of payment will see their payment increase and some additional lone parents will qualify for a payment. It is estimated that this measure will be of direct benefit to approximately 16,000 lone parents at a cost of approximately €10 million per year.
The Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 outlines the Government’s strategy to reduce the number of people in consistent poverty and increase social inclusion to those who are most disadvantaged. It is a whole of government strategy with a five-year timeframe which aims to reduce consistent poverty to 2% or less and to make Ireland one of the most socially inclusive countries in the EU. It also includes a commitment to set a new national child poverty target and I recently launched a public consultation on setting this new target. The closing date for submissions is Friday 19 January 2024 at 5pm.
I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.