Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On Committee Stage in the Seanad, I brought forward three amendments, all of which relate to the extension of child benefit to 18-year-olds who are in full-time education or who have a disability. Of these, amendment No. 3 is the substantive amendment and will provide for the extension to take effect from 1 May rather than from 3 September. The other two amendments are technical amendments consequential to this. Child benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children up to the age of 16. Currently, the payment continues to be paid in respect of children until their 18th birthday where they are in full-time education or have a disability.

With many children now starting primary school at age five, together with the increase in the number of pupils doing transition year, there has been an increase in the number of 18-year-olds still in secondary education. In budget 2024, the Government decided to extend the payment of child benefit to 18-year-olds who are in full-time education or have a disability and this was one of my key priorities in the budget. The extension of child benefit to 18-year-olds in full-time education is a long-term change for the better that will support families throughout Ireland. This is a significant change to the child benefit scheme. It requires technical and operational changes to my Department’s scheme. Originally, we had provided that the change would take effect from September, but I am pleased to be able to bring that forward to 1 May. In the region of 60,000 children annually are expected to benefit from this measure.

In the case of anybody who has aged out of payment where the child is still 18, they should submit their application. If the child will be still 18 on 1 May, they should get in the application and they will go back into payment. I wanted to make that point because I was speaking to some parents earlier who thought they might not qualify but they will, so they should submit their application.

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