Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The working family payment, WFP, is an in-work support which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings who have children. The WFP is designed to prevent in-work poverty for low-paid workers with children to offer them a financial incentive to take up employment.

Our latest figures, which are from the end of November 2018, show the WFP was in payment to 3,239 civil and public servants, although the information available to the Department does not allow a distinction between the two groups. Some 86 members of the Defence Forces were in receipt of WFP at the end of November. In total, the WFP was in payment to 53,384 employees at the end of November 2018, supporting more than 120,000 children, and expenditure on the scheme to that date was €380 million. The estimated total expenditure for 2018 is €411 million.

At the end of 2017, the WFP was made to 57,745 employees and expenditure for 2017 was an estimated €415 million, which was almost the same as for 2018. At the end of last year, some 104 Defence Forces employees were in receipt of WFP. The number is, therefore, reducing. The number of Defence Forces families in receipt of the WFP at the end of December 2017 was 104, whereas some 86 Defence Forces families were in receipt of the WFP at the end of November 2018.

See this speech in context